Monday, September 7, 2009

One Scary Night

Saturday night we were so excited to watch the Alabama/Virginia Tech game! Luke had been looking forward to the beginning of college football....well, probably since the last game last year. Our friends Cory and Linsy came over to watch and my sister had popped in for a minute. Harper was in typical Harper-mode. She had Cory and Linsy's shakers running around the living room. We were all eating hot dogs so she was going around to each of us so that we could give her bites of bread. She came up to me to get another bite of bread and she stiffened up and fell in the floor. Her falling down was nothing unusual but her eyes kept fluttering and I noticed that she had pooped in her diaper at the same time. I picked her up to go change her and her eyes kept fluttering. I called the pediatrician on-call but ended up calling 911 because she couldn't hold her head up. We all went outside to wait on the ambulance. Harper would cry, then her eyes would drift off to the side, then snap back to normal. I was absolutely terrified.
By the time the ambulance got there I noticed that she was burning up. They had no thermometer on the ambulance, had no motrin/tylenol, and couldn't start an IV. I happened to have some motrin in the diaper bag (thank you God) and gave her a dose on the ride to Children's Hospital. They also weren't concerned when Harper kept drifting to sleep which is TOTALLY unlike Harper.
When we arrived at the hospital her fever was 103.5 after the motrin. They gave her another dose of Tylenol, took a urine sample (through a catheter, mind you), and checked her over. The doctor told us that she had a febrile seizure. Supposedly these happen when a child gets a fever within a short time frame (like 60 seconds or so). They told us that it could happen again and that it wasn't a concern if the seizure only lasts 30-60 seconds. Easy for them to say! Any longer and we should call an ambulance like we had done.
I cannot believe that her fever shot up so quickly. She had NO symptoms--no runny nose, no fever, no ear infection. I am sooooooooooo very thankful that she is okay. I know God is in control and taking care of this precious child!

3 comments:

  1. oh my goodness how scary! has she had any more episodes? What do they think caused the fever? I'm so sorry you had to go through something so terrifying.

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  2. You guys have been in my prayers. I know that must have been so scary! I hope that she is doing better. Let me know if I can do anything!

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  3. How terrifying, Katy! We were away & I had no idea that all that had gone on. I am so sorry. THANK GOD Harper is okay!

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