Sooooo Scary!
On Saturday the 24th we were suppose to be going out to celebrate Eric's 33rd birthday. I had arranged for a babysitter. It was going to be the first non-family member to watch Megan. Kiersten & Aubrey were going to be home too so I felt comfortable. Meg had been running a mild fever since the night before. I put her down for a nap & Eric left to go look at a job before we went to dinner. He took off for Issaquah at about 3:45pm. I was going to ride up with Lee (Eric's brother that lives with us, upstairs) to dinner. Megan woke up about 1/2 hour later and was burning up. I called the baby sitter and cancelled, bummer, and called Eric and told him that I wasn't going to be able to meet him and the rest of our friends & his family.
I gave her some Advil, & put her in the bath with cool water in hopes that it would bring the fever down. She ended up getting really upset, so I took her out and was only able to put a diaper on her. I sat down in the rocking chair & was rocking her for about 5 minutes. She got really upset again so I stood up with her laying on my chest and was kinda bouncing her. After a few seconds of standing up she started seizing. I started running up the stairs and yelling for my brother in law to help me. He ran out of the bathroom with half of his face covered in shaving cream. Asking what was wrong. I told him through sobs that she was having a seizure and handed her to him. I started to run around in circles trying to figure out where a phone was to dial 911. I finally found one and was connected. I had to give the operator my address twice. Through all of this I kept stopping and looking at Megan. Her lips had turned blue. Her eyes where rolled back and glazed over, and she was mildly convulsing. I totally lost at that point. I screamed that her lips where blue and the operator told me to calm down, then she transferred me. A nice gentleman had me give my address again and informed me that previous operator had transferred me to the wrong department. Lee told me that Meg was starting to come out and that it would be faster for him to drive me. I told Kiersten and Aubrey to stay home and that I would call them. They were a mess. Hysterical. Sobbing like I was.
Lee & I jumped into the Suburban with me clinging to Megan. We made it to the hospital in about 3 minutes. They quickly escorted us to a room and several nurses started to evaluated Megan. They took her temp. 105 something. And her heart rate was 200. Twice what it should be. Lee had called Eric at this point & he headed back from Issaquah. The doctor ordered IV fluids for her and the nurses asked me to leave the room so she would reach for me. They also had to catheter her to get a urine sample. Eric was finally there and they ended up putting a line in Megs arm and were going to wait on the IV fluids. They gave her more Advil and Tylenol too to the fever down. We went and got a chest x-ray.
Kiersten & Aubrey had called my parents & they headed out to Enumclaw. They had also gone and got the neighbor and he had come over to sit with them.
The blood & urine work finally came back and they found nothing. The dr. looked over the x-rays and said that he didn't see anything but would have to wait for the radiologist to look at it on Monday morning. By now Megan's temp is down to 99.4 and they sent us home with instruction to alternate Advil/Tylenol every three hours. And with paperwork explaining what a Febrile Seizure was. Eric had several of them when he was little.
We got home around 8:30pm & Megan fell asleep around 9:30pm. She woke up around 10:30pm & was burning up again. We gave her Advil & she started throwing up. So we ended back in the ER. They were able to give her Advil by another way (I'll save you the details). And discharged us again.
We put her in bed with us for the night, getting up when she needed to have more meds. She seemed a little bit better on Sunday.
We took her to her regular dr. on Monday. After he reviewed all of the paperwork that the ER had given us copies of what they had done, he couldn't tell us what would have caused her fever to spike that high, that quick. "Just a fast moving virus."
I am so thankful for my brother in law that was able to keep a level head and stay calm. I am thankful for drs. & nurses that worked quickly and were compassionate. I am especially thankful for men in my life that hold the priesthood and were able to give her a blessing in the ER. And I am thankful for by baby that is back to her normal, busy self. I will now dread every time she gets a fever. I pray that we don't have to go through that again. And I feel so sorry for all of the other families that have had to go through that. I know that it is semi common but non the less scary!
Megan with her IV line in her arm.
She finally fell asleep.
