Trip to the ER

* This blog entry is part sharing, part note taking, and part therapy*

Some of you already know that we had a very scary incident on Thursday, May 18. Kaylee woke up that morning with a fever but was her normal self, no other cold symptoms. I treated her with some ibprofen and went about our day. We had our swim lesson and babysat the Williams kids. She felt warm again, so I  gave her what I had on me, Tylonal. We headed home and we got Jamba Juice. Kaylee didn't have much of an appetite, but she would never turn down Jamba Juice! And the cold fluids would help with the fever. I considered stopping by one of the Kaiser offices that we pass on the way home to get an accurate temperature on her, but didn't because she was asleep by the time we got near the exit. So we continued on home. Kaylee woke up from her nap at her normal time. She was hot but happy. So we rested, drank water, and watched one of her many Dvds. She was very cuddley, and just wanted to sit with me. She was still hot. She requested Tangled, so we got up and put it in the dvd player, and then it hit, the worst few minutes of our parenthood.

She was limp, unresponsive. I yelled for Curtis, he was asleep next to us. He woke up, trying to process what was happening & get us out the door. Then Kaylee vomits on me. I am a wreck, Curtis tells me to calm down. We rush upstairs to rinse off and cool her down. I feel her twitching in my arms. We are in the shower, she turns blue. Curtis grabs the phone to call 911, and then Kaylee is back, sort-of. Total time maybe 2-3 minutes. No longer blue and slightly responsive we keep her naked, loosely bundled in towels, and head to the hospital.

What a long drive to the hospital. I was wishing we lived closer to a hospital. During the car ride Kaylee knew where she was, and was talking with me. I was singing songs to her and kept looking for signs of alertness, and Curtis kept looking back at her. Finally at the hospital, ER check-in nurses suspect febrile seizure, a seizure caused by extremely high temperature, a very common and normal body response. Well, it wasn't very normal for us! Kaylee was seen by the ER triage nurse & doctor. They thought it was a febrile seizure also, and a possible reason for the fever was bladder infection since there were no other definite symptoms.  They gave her full doses of tylonal and ibprofen, something I didn't do, or even know I could do.  Within an hour her temperature was down, from what we could tell. Since there were no cold symptoms to warrant the fever, we needed further tests ... blood, urine, etc. So we had to wait a while for that. While we were waiting Kaylee was 100% herself. She was telling us she wanted to go home by saying "bye-bye". She played on our phones, even her appetite returned. We walked, we sat, we walked, we sat. We eventually put a diaper and a shirt on her. Finally we get to see another doctor. Our room was a bed in the ER hallway, they were swamped. Kaylee is definitely not pleased about where she is, and unfortunately it wasn't going to get any better. She had a chest Xray done, Kaylee freaked out, Curtis & I held her down. Blood drawn, 3 people holding her plus the one taking her blood. Then the worst one, urine sample, 3 people & the nurse taking urine. And lastly a antibiotic shot in the thigh, and I could hear the nurse say "She is pushing out the medicine" since Kaylee was flexing her legs so hard. After all of that Kaylee fell asleep in my arms. About an hour passes and the tests all come back clean. And the ER doctor says to do tylonal every 4-hours and ibprofen ever 6-hours and to follow-up with our pediatrician the next day to see if anything presents itself.  So we go home, tired & hungry. Kaylee falls asleep again. We stop by Jack n the Box, Kaylee hears the bag, wakes up and says "fries?!". We drive around to put her back to sleep. That night I sleep next to her crib & wake up every 2 hours to check on her. The fever stayed away for the night & she sleeps well. Curtis and I do not.

The next day I cuddle with Kaylee in her crib. She is tired but wants to play. I have her play on my phone. We go to our doctors appointment & Kaylee isn't pleased to be there. But we get through it and turns out she has a virus. Couple of little dots in the back of her throat. So rest & fluids. Temperature is normal, thank God! Later in the day we suspect Kaylee has a sore throat. Not like she can tell us, but she does her growl for certain foods. So we just get her to drink her fluids. I gave her tylonal for the discomfort. She was really enjoying crackers, so she had lots of those & water.

I spent the next 3 nights next to be bed. She loves to touch my hair, and during the night she will stick her arm out of the crib to touch me. As I write this email, she is asleep in her crib & I am laying on the ground next to her. I am still sad at what happened & what she had to go through. I have a better understanding on fevers, when to fight them & when to let the fever do its job. I know I could have done better at avoiding the seizure. The ER doctor said to keep fevers below 100.4. The pediatrician assured me that it isn't necessarily how high her temperature was, but how fast it got that high that can cause the febrile seizures. The pediatrician also said to do everything possible to fight the fever for the first 24-hours, tylonal and ibprofen regime, tepid baths, etc. The next day watch the fever and cut back on medication if fever is under control. There is a definite line when the fever is helpful and when it isn't. And 100.4 degrees is my line. Kaylee, I am so sorry you had to go through that. Although you won't remember it, I will, your Daddy will, and we try our hardest not to let that happen again.

Oh, and a brief family medical history, Curtis had those types of seizures as a baby. So it is more likely that Kaylee will have them as well. We now know what to do and how Kaylee's body deals with extreme temperature.