Our Worst Nightmare

It all started at 4 am this morning. I was feeding Carly and Ella started crying so I sent Joseph in to get her. He brought her back to me and told me he didn't know why she was crying. I felt her head and she was burning up so I took her temp and it was 101. So we give her Tylenol and she goes back to bed. We all woke up around 9 am and got ready for Carly's dr. appt. (she's been a little snuffly and has a bunch of mucus in her spit up). Ella was a little warm so I gave her some more Tylenol and we headed out the door. The dr. appt. was for 11am. After finding out that Carly has a bit of a cold we leave and go take lunch to daddy. Ella was complaining that she was cold the whole time so I put a coat on her and we just went home. Ella and Carly both fell asleep in the car. When we got home (2 pm) I brought Carly in first and then went back and scooped Ella up to put her in bed. She woke up and told me she was cold again but she was burning up. I laid her in bed and went to get her a popsicle. When I came back with it she tried sitting up against the wall but just kind of slid down the side of the wall. I took her temp and it was 102.4 so I gave her some more Tylenol and went out to put Carly to bed. Right when I walked out of the room I heard Ella cry real faintly, "Mommy, mommy, mommy" So I went back in and she was gulping like she was going to throw up. I asked her if she was going to throw up and she didn't answer. So I picked her up and took her to the sink with her still clutching her popsicle. She wasn't throwing up but she was still gulping and staring at me with wide eyes. I said, "Ella, are you ok?" No answer, she just had a really scared look on her eyes. I kept prodding her, "Ella, Ella are you ok? Do you need to throw up?" Then she tried saying "mommy" but it came out, "muh, muh, mmmmmm..mm.mm.." Her arm went limp and she dropped her popsicle and just stared at me barely able to mumble. I knew something was really wrong and it was so so scary I literally thought she was going into a coma or dying. I knew I had to get that fever down now so I ran to the tub put her in (clothes and all) and turned on the cold water. I tried to lean her up against the wall of the tub but she just slid down it and was still starring into space. She was making a gurgling sound like she was drowning. I ran to get my phone, called 911 (2:27 pm) and ran back to her. While I did this I realized that Ella's whole body was jolting and she was still starring blankly, her eyes glazed over. I told the 911 guy that I had a 2 yr. old that I thought was having a seizure. He told me to get her out of the tub, dry her off and put her on the bed. Ella's whole body was stiff and her body was still jolting a lot. Her lips started to turn blue, then purple. Then her ears were purple and about a min. later her whole face was purple like she couldn't breath. Then she started foaming at the mouth. 911 guy told me to turn her on her side and not to touch her b/c she needed to cool off and if I held her or even put my hands on her then my body heat would make it not possible for her body to cool off. So I had to stand there, bawling on the phone to 911 guy and just watch my two year old seizing, turning purple, and foaming at the mouth. The paramedics came in what seemed like 20 min (about 3 min. in real time) and took over. They put two IVs in her and an oxygen mask. She started to come out of the seizure (she seized for 20 min.) and get really scared. She was crying and started to pull the mask off of her. After about 5 min she started to seize again. They gave her this shot in the leg that made the seizure stop. Then they took (2:40 pm) her by ambulance (completely naked) while I called a neighbor to come be with Carly. Then I went with another paramedic to meet Joseph at the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital and saw Ella she was laying there in one of those hospital cribs playing with a cord that went to her blood pressure machine. She was so lethargic and out of it, she wouldn't even acknowledge us. She reminded me of a vegetable, except she was playing with the cord. After about an hour she started crying and wanted to be held. (a good sign b/c at least she was a little more like herself.) Then they said that they wanted a urine sample and were going to put a catheter in. (remembering your trauma Samantha...) I asked them if I could get her to go potty by herself in a cup. We tried for like 15 min but when she started falling asleep on the toilet I decided to call it quits. So there was more crying and trauma of them sticking a cath in her and then a thermometer up her bum. Her urine came back clean (no UTI) and we stayed for about another 2 hours to watch her fever and got discharged.

We are finally home and Ella turned back into the Ella Bella we know. She was jumping around the room and talking so much it seemed like she was making up for lost time. I'm scared for her to sleep though. Mainly b/c I was putting her down for a nap when she started seizing. I'm scared that it's going to happen in the middle of the night and us not know. I'm glad I was there for her but honestly, that was the worse thing I've ever had to do, to watch her like that. I can't get that image out of my head of her turning blue and her body jolting uncontrollably. Joseph gave her a blessing and I think I'm going to sleep with her tonight.

The doctors told me that what she had was called a Febrile Seizure. It's a seizure caused by a fever spiking too high, too fast. They said that in some children their brains just can't take the heat and their body seizes to bring their body temp down. Apparently it's not that uncommon in small children. Now that Ella has had one they said she's more likely to have more when she gets fevers. So now we have to watch her fevers every 2 hours to make sure it doesn't spike again. We are really praying for her to get through this quickly. One thing they said was, was to not ever put your child into pure cold water. It should be a temped bath (which I knew I just panicked and didn't really have time to test the water) b/c if it's too cold their body cools down too fast and then to try and warm itself up the body heat rises too fast again. (note to all you moms out their) So if this ever happens to your child, you're supposed to lay them on a flat surface, on their side (so they don't choke on their saliva or tongue) with a pillow under their head and call 911.