Abby had a febrile seizure :(

This has probably been the scariest night of my life. Let’s hope it’s also the last as I don’t ever want to relive it. 🙁

All afternoon the girls were fighting their fevers. They were either laying on me or laying on their blankets on the couch or floor. Several times I’d see Abby “startle” like when she was a baby, waking herself up crying, of course. I’d calm her usually just with words as Emi was laying on me and Abby would fall back to sleep or ask for something to drink and I’d get it for her. I actually thought to myself if those “startles” could be seizures. But I figured no way.

Then, Abby got really upset and wanted to lay on me so I gave her priority and put Emi on the couch by herself for awhile. By this time in the week Emi is on the back end of this icky virus, but Abby is in the early end of it.

Anyway, Abby and I fell asleep together. She was laying on me and on top of both of us was our BIG hot blanket. We were nice and toasty. Abby’d had Tylenol about 6 hours before and because she was asleep, I figured I’d wait until she was awake to get her to take more medicine. And she didn’t feel *that* hot … definitely HOT though.

In any case, Abby “startled” on me a couple times and then relaxed into sleep again. But around 7:30 (ish) — I honestly don’t know what time it was — I felt her start to shiver on me. I wait a sec to see if it would stop like the other times, but it didn’t. It felt, to me, like she was tensing all her muscles. That’s when I noticed her hands were clenched tightly into fists and her body was rigid – like a board. I then also noticed she wasn’t breathing. Her head then turned to the side and her eyes, while wide open, were also turned to the side. She was completely and absolutely unresponsive to me.

I immediately yelled for Ron to call 911 and he came running downstairs and grabbed the phone and called. While he was calling, Abby’s lips were turning blue because she still wasn’t breathing. Her fists were still clenched, her body totally rigid and absolutely shivering with tension — seizing.

Then, she started to take little tiny gasps of breath. Just 1, then another, then a few “minutes later” (probably only seconds) another. Through all this, Ron was on the phone with the 911 people and pretty soon, I heard the sirens outside the house.

The Firemen responded first. By the time they got there Abby wasn’t seizing anymore but she was totally unresponsive. I’d say “Abby, look at mommy” and nothing. It was like talking to a brick wall. 🙁 The fireman checked her pulse and listened to her lungs and gave the all clear, but put her on oxygen for precaution. He said EMS might keep using it — or not when they got there.

EMS and Apex police came next (so that means a big fire truck, a cop car and an ambulance all outside our house). EMS kept the oxygen, checked everything too, had me repeat the story, confirmed it was likely a febrile seizure and because Abby was still in the post-seizure state she thought it would be best that we head over to the hospital to double check. Allison (the EMS lady) said it was nothing but precaution as there is *rarely* any complication from a febrile seizure. It’s just the body’s way to trying to expend energy and cool itself when it gets overheated due to a fever.

So, I handed Abby over in nothing but her diaper and with Emi’s “taggie”, grabbed my shoes, coat and purse and got in the ambulance too. Abs was already strapped in, had been given a teddy bear which she was clutching, had leads on to monitor her heart and was laying just as relaxed looking as possible… which I knew meant she was still out of it. We rode *fast* to the hospital… I asked that we go to big Wake because they have a dedicated Peds unit …. so we skipped over the Cary and Raleigh hospitals and went to WakeMed…. on the other side of Raleigh.

While in the ambulance, EMS took Abby’s temp and it was 102.5 and checked Abby’s blood sugar to make sure the seizure hadn’t drained her of sugar — apparently that can happen. It was normal at 145. About 15 minutes before we reached the hospital they also gave her a dose of Tylenol. And about 10 minutes before arrival EMS confirmed her heartrate was finally slowing … to a normal 80 ish vs. the 100+ it was at.

We sat to wait after a brief check-in and then were moved to Triage about 15 minutes later. The nurse took her temperature and it was 103.3 (rectally)! Yikes! Blood pressure and pulse were all back to normal. Then we waited again. Only about another 20 minutes later.

Once in the room, they listened to her lungs and heart again and we waited at least 30 minutes for the Doctor. When he came in, I relayed the information again. He said it sounded like a classic febrile seizure. He educated me by saying that febrile seizure most often happens in kids under 5, is due to fast onset fevers or spikes, usually happens within 24 hrs of the onset of a fever, has a 30% chance of happening again to her (not in this illness, but during another 🙁 ) and has absolutely NO neurological implication.

He checked her ears and her eyes too and throat and confirmed everything was a-ok. He said we did everything right in calling, talking with her, making sure she was sitting up (because they can choke if there is anything in their mouth) etc. He said he wanted to test for the flu (because she’d still be eligible for Tamiflu at that time) and for a UTI which is apparently something that can cause the high fevers.

The flu test was a nasal swab, but the UTI test required catheterization because Abby can’t pee on demand yet. Both were negative. By this time it was 12:30am and they were discharging us to go home. Phew! They said she wasn’t dehydrated (which I figured because she’d been drinking all day long) so no IV (thank goodness). She and I basically sat in the chair, in the ER room for 4 ish hours while they checked, ran tests and confirmed everything was ok.

Because I went in the ambulance I didn’t have my car, so Abby and I sat in the waiting room again for another 45+ minutes while Ron came to pick us up. Well, Ron and Emily did. We decided to leave Joseph at home as he was asleep and NEEDs his sleep.

Abs conked out again within 5 minutes of getting in the van.