On our way home from the cabin at 7pm Abigail fell asleep in her car seat. She didn't have much of a nap that day so we thought we'd let her have a catnap on the way home, play a little while we unpacked and then put her to bed. I threw a little blanket over her since it was starting to get chilly again.
When we got home at 8pm and I took her out, she was just limp. I grabbed the blanket and held her to let her wake up slowly (don't you hate it when the covers are ripped off you while you're still waking up?). As she laid her head on my neck I mentioned to Derek that she felt really warm so I unwrapped her and took a look at her face. Derek stepped over to feel her and look... and that's when she leaned back in my arms and rolled her eyes back into her head. Now she's done this before as a joke, pulling silly faces, so at first we both thought "oh, you're so silly". However, then she started to just shake - her entire little 24 pound body - moving uncontrollably in my arms.
I recognized that she was probably having a seizure so I tried to just hold her very loosely in my arms so she wouldn't get hurt but could get over it on her own. That was the longest minute! While she was shaking we stepped outside onto the porch to get some fresh cool evening air and Derek called 911. As she came out of the seizure she was so limp and tired and not very responsive. She just kind of collapsed onto my chest and laid there.
It was only a few short minutes and someone was pulling into our driveway. Don and Linda Redder (Abbi's daycare provider) had heard the call on the scanner and knew it was our house so they rushed over to help, knowing they could probably beat the EMTs. What a God-send that was! Abbi was really going to be okay but I didn't think I was. It was nice to have Don hold Abbi and check her out and Linda to hug me and remind me it'd be okay. After that initial collapse onto my chest she did start crying/whimpering/coughing.
The EMTs arrived shortly thereafter and took over. We loaded her into her car seat and onto a stretcher to take a [very short] ambulance drive to Zeeland Community Hospital. As we drove there the technician checked her temp and vitals. She was at 106 F at that time. She slowly stopped that crying/coughing thing as we arrived at the ER at about 8:45pm and when Derek walked up to join us (he had taken our car so we could get back home while I rode with Abigail) she said his name or something. It was good to hear her voice!
After some other tests, and some heavy doses of meds we were sent home at 10pm. We had to monitor her for at least 24 hours because she would be prone to seize again. We also had to keep giving her acetaminophen and ibuprofen through the next 24 hours or until her fever subsided. If she seized again we only needed to take her back in if it was longer than 3 minutes. Three minutes, folks. I prayed so hard I wouldn't have to even time that or make that decision.
Yes, I slept on the floor next to her crib for the next 2 nights. She was pretty feverish the next day, and it took a few days for even the low-grade fever to fade and any sort of appetite to return but it did. When I asked her about it the next morning though, as we laid on the couch, she did remember Don holding her and riding in the ambulance - none of it was mentioned by me, she just commented on it to me. So apparently she was more coherent than I thought.
Supposedly, there is no brain damage done by this type of seizure. It is actually fairly common in children under 5years old when they spike a fever really fast (like 45 min car ride from Newaygo...) or when coming down from a fever really fast. So, don't think dunking your kid in a cold bathtub is really helping them, that could've made her seize too. Now that'd she's had one Febrile ("fever") Seizure she has a higher chance to have more until she outgrows it in a few years. It's just the body's natural way of fighting that fever (shudder). The EMT told me, on our ride to the hospital, that he thinks many children have them and parents don't even realize it because it happens in the middle of the night and they just "wake up" crying. So, I guess, in a way, I'm glad we are at least aware of it now.
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