Last evening I was getting my kids’ dinner ready, and I had set my 22 month old in his highchair. My husband walked in and walked straight over to Cooper who usually would yell, “Daddy,” but instead was staring off, and his arm was twitching. My husband picked him up, and my baby flopped around and began convulsing more and more, with eyes rolling all around. I didn’t know what was going on, and I freaked out instantly. I think I said, “let’s go, somethings wrong, lets go…” My husband who stays very calm, just nodded and we went out into the garage. My baby was convulsing worse now, and throwing up. My husband said it was like holding a water balloon, he had no muscle control.
My husband told me to call 911, and I had to tell them my address and phone number 4 times. I started telling them what was going on, and crying asking them what to do. I gave the phone to my husband who used to be a 911 operator, and knows how to talk to them more efficiently. I helplessly followed them around, as my husband laid Cooper in the grass, as instructed and Cooper flopped and moaned, with eyes rolling. At this point I did not know if it was a seizure or a stroke, but all I could say is “somethings wrong…”
Once the ambulance showed up they took him and laid him in back and started taking his temperature, and poking him, hooking him up to things. He just stared off into space, and lay there. At this point they’d determined he had had a seizure, and wanted to take him to the children’s hospital. I didn’t know however that the veg out stage can last so long. I thought that it was like when someone faints, they come to shortly after, so I began to panic. I saw him laying there, with them snapping in his face trying to get him to respond, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The EMT told me I needed to get it together if I wanted to ride with them, so I started taking deep breaths and praying. I didn’t stop praying. The 40 minute ride was just as terrifying, again as the EMT never said, “this is normal,” but instead would say things like, “that’s weird he didn’t cry when I drew blood.” or “that’s weird he’s not playing with the oxygen mask, kids normally do.” Cooper’s head rolled around, so I had to hold it most of the way so it didn’t bang into the side of the car seat.
We finally got to the hospital and as we got him out of the back, he started to blink and look around, as if he was just waking up. This started to make me feel a little better. They got us in quickly and the doctor informed us that all his symptoms were normal for a “febrile seizure,” and that it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour after the seizure for them to really come to.
Thanks to our neighbors, our other boys were taken well care of, guarded from seeing their baby brother like that, and we were picked up from the hospital.
We had a basically sleepless night sleep, and today took him into a follow up visit at the doctor. They think he’s got a virus, and we were instructed to give him medication every three hours, to keep the fever from getting high, round the clock for 3 days and to keep him down, and resting.
We are so grateful that it was not something worse, but are still fairly traumatized from the experience. It was the worst thing to see, and I don’t want it to happen again.
I can’t hug and hold him enough today.
