Scary Morning

Austin had a seizure this morning. Let me assure you right off that he is fine now, but it was terrifying as it happened. Austin woke up a few times in the night coughing, and by morning had a runny nose so we thought he just had a cold. He felt slightly warm but was playing and eating more or less normally so we weren't worried. But just before lunchtime Zach laid him down to change his diaper and the seizure started. He yelled to me to call 911. By the time I got off the phone with the dispatcher, the seizure was over but an ambulance came and took us to the ER. The doctor there diagnosed it right away as a febrile seizure, one brought on by a fever. We thought that sort of thing only happened with really high fevers. Austin's was only 101.7 but apparently the seizures happen when fevers spike suddenly. They gave him Motrin and monitored him for awhile to make sure the fever went down, then sent us home. He has an ear infection, it turns out, so he's also on an antibiotic to take care of that.

So...not fun. Poor little guy, he was exhausted, scared, and not feeling well at the hospital and cried most of the time he was awake; thank goodness he was able to fall asleep and nap next to me for awhile. He had monitors strapped to his chest and a pulse-oxymeter on his toe. (Strangely familiar...) Now that he's home, though, he is obviously feeling better. He's upstairs playing right now.

We have since learned that febrile seizures are genetic and quite a few people on Zach's side of the family have had them. Austin may be prone to them for the next few years so we will need to monitor any fever he gets and control it with tylenol or motrin. Scarily, though, the seizures can happen when a fever initially starts; you don't necessarily get a warning. We are just praying that he will not have any more of them.

I just have to mention the kindness of God on display in this situation, though. If one of my children had to have a seizure, the circumstances couldn't have been any more ideal. Most days at 11:30 in the morning I would be by myself with two kids and dealing with this alone would have been horrible. But Fridays Zach comes home early, and this particular Friday my in-laws are in town, including my nurse MIL. She knew what to do with Austin while we was seizing, and she, Bill, and Heath were here to take care of Esther while Zach and I went to the hospital. I am so thankful.