My Daughter had Febrile Seizure

Tuesday started out like any normal day in our home.  Kids in jammies walking around with granola bars and waffles for breakfast.  I went for a 3 mile run while they watched their morning shows and continued waking up.  When I got back from my run, I encouraged the girls to get dressed and take care of some items on their chore chart.  As I was dressing Mylie, I thought she felt a little warm so I took her temperature rectally and it read 99.5.  She has recently cut two top molars and I can see the eye teeth on the bottom starting to come through so that type of a temp made perfect sense and I gave her a dose of IBUprofen.

The rest of the morning continued on as planned.  At 10 am we had a play date at our house with our good friends, the Zoske's.  Stacey is my good friend with whom I ran the Dam-to-Dam.  Her oldest son, Nate, was born within minutes on the same day as Myah and Maysen and Logan is 6 weeks older than Mylie.  After about an hour of playing, we headed to Panchero's (AKA the Quesadilla Place) for lunch and then a very quick trip to Target and back home for a nap.

Our plan had been to go to the Furman Aquatic Center (AKA the Big Bucket) once everyone was up from their nap.  This plan changed when Mylie awoke from her nap.  She had napped for about 2 hours, but I could hear her about every half hour or so make some crying noises so I imagined she was a little uncomfortable but still tired.  When I picked her up after her nap, she was burning up.  I took her temperature by way of ear and one side said 103.5 while the other said 104.  I immediately gave her more IBUprofen and got on the phone with pediatrics.  Of course, with a fever, they have to have a nurse call you back and they hee-and-haw about having you come in to actually see a doctor.  I finally convinced the nurse to let us come in since she's so young and her temp was so high.  The earliest appointment was 4:15.

We saw Dr. Smith at 4:15.  Her temp was still 101.something even after 2 hours of having IBUprofen...this seemed a little high to me.  She was still really hot, whimpering and just sitting on my lap.  The girl always smiles and runs around with her older sisters so I just knew she wasn't feeling like herself.  He ordered some blood work, which came back normal, and ruled that she has a virus that will take probably 3-5 days to pass.  Not what you really want to hear when your child doesn't feel good, but at least it's something.

Upon returning to our house, Mylie sat on my lap and laid on my chest for the next 45 minutes  dozing in and out of sleep.  She didn't appear to have any appetite, but looked as if she could go to bed at any minute for the rest of the night so I got her jammies on.  Brandon got home around 6:05 from basketball camp and Mylie actually perked up when she saw him.  She smiled (the first time since 2:30) and even got off my lap and acted playful towards him.  Seeing this, I asked her if she was hungry and she nodded 'yes.'  I put her in her booster seat and gave her a few crackers and went to warm up a hotdog for her.

This is when my worst nightmare happened.  I heard Brandon say something like 'Mylie, why are you dropping your crackers on the floor?'  I turned and looked at her and said 'she looks like she's having a SEIZURE!'  I ordered Brandon to call 911 as I unbuckled her (thank goodness she was buckled or she would have fallen to the floor from the booster seat) and sat on the floor with her in my lap (lying on her side) while she convulged.  Her eyes were open for a while and then they rolled back into her head and she turned a blue/purple.  Especially her lips.  A little blood ran out of her mouth....she must have bit her tongue or something.  The dispatcher directed me (via Brandon) to lie her on the floor and give her some rescue breathing breaths...thank goodness for 9 years of lifeguard and CPR training. I gave her two breaths and then the first responders arrived at our house. It seemed like forever but Brandon was probably on the phone with the dispatcher for about 5 minutes and the seizure lasted for about 2-3 minutes I figure.

I rode with Mylie in the ambulance to the hospital and I sang to her the whole way.  She cried. And she never really looked at me.  I'm sure she knew I was there and she eventually grabbed onto my finger but she never turned her head to look at me or reach out to me.  This scared me, but apparently it's pretty normal as she's confused, still fairly tense, and hooked up to monitors and in an unfamiliar place.  At the hospital her temp was read twice right away one said 102.2 and the other said 103.something, she had two blood draws, a Tylenol suppository, two chest x-rays, a urine sample conducted via catheter, and two nasal swabs.  The poor girl was exhausted from all of the crying and she just wanted to sleep.  I just held her on the gurney and she slept on and off for the 3 hours we spent there.  All of her tests came back normal, which is good news.  Her body responded to the sudden spike in fever by way of seizure.  I guess this happens a lot to little kids, but no one prepares you for it that's for sure.  It just wrenches your heart out seeing your child go through something like this.

I slept in Mylie's room last night and I probably will for a few days.  I finally went to bed around 12:20 but was yelling out for Brandon by 12:45.  I had dreamed (nightmared) it was all happening again.  When I came-to, I told him to 'nevermind' but I had woken Mylie.  She was feeling a little warm again so I gave her some Tylenol and she went back to bed.  She slept until 5:39 and then fell asleep on me in the rocking chair until shortly after 7 am.  Every time I look at her booster seat, I envision it all again.  I see the spot on the floor where she laid.  I get tears in my eyes.  And I look around the house until I see her bright smile, and big, brown eyes looking back at me.  I feel prepared if this should ever happen again because I will be set aware of the possibility if she has a fever, but I pray that I never have to go through that again.

Thank you to all of my friends and family who were praying over us through this scary time.  We are so fortunate to have so many people who love us.  A special thank you to Mal, our favorite babysitter, who responded immediately when I called her.