Noah - Wednesday

(Noah with is bear from the WDM EMT that tried to make friends with him. He never liked the EMT, but he really does love this silly bear!)

My good news this Wednesday is Noah. He gave us a big scare yesterday.

I could tell that Noah wasn’t feeling his finest yesterday but I thought he was just a little extra tired. He’s cutting at least one molar and has some more on the top that are swollen. He took his morning nap and then was really tired at 12:30, which is an hour early for his afternoon nap but since I had been fighting a migraine for the past two days I decided we would all take naps so Gage and I also slept. When Noah woke up around 3 he felt a little warm but I didn’t think it was too bad so we ran two errands that didn’t take long. Noah fell asleep in the car on the way home which I thought was a little silly but I did have the heat on in the van and he was bundled in his coat. Let me say here that I think I’m pretty conservative with medicine and doctor visits. I tried everything and anything with Gage when he was so colicky his whole first year and nothing worked. With Noah I have really held back because of this.

We got home and I cleaned up the house and started to make dinner. Noah wanted another rest; he just kept resting his head on me so I let him sleep for a short nap and then woke him up. He was having fun watching Gage and laughing at things we were all doing but still felt warm. I had dinner ready and Wade had called and would be home in 15 minutes so I decided just to sit with him on the couch. He started to cry a little so I thought I better take off his clothes so he could cool down. I didn’t want to give him Tylenol yet because they would be going to bed in a little over an hour so I thought we could just wait. I picked him up and took off his clothes and that is when he started to have a seizure.

It was the worst thing in the world I think I’ve seen. I was holding him so I kept holding him on his side and he wouldn’t stop. I called Wade and he didn’t answer, but I knew he would be home any minute. Gage was running around wanting to know what was going on and I thought Noah would stop but it seemed like eternity and he wouldn’t. I called Anne-Marie to get Gage but her husband said she wasn’t home, when I told him what was going on I freaked him out. I really thought Noah would stop so I called my sister who has a little boy who has seizures. She said if it had been longer than 3 minutes to call 911. I’m pretty sure I hung up on her at this point. (Sorry Kathy!) I dialed 911 but then heard Wade’s car door so I threw open the front door and yelled for Wade. He called 911 and took over. Noah wasn’t responding, wasn’t breathing well and was turning grey. I was trying to stay calm. It seemed like forever and he was still seizing. He started to stop convulsing right as the fire truck got to our house. I let them take over. I was trying really hard not to lose it and felt like I was in some sort of movie with all these big strange guys in my house and my poor baby lying on the floor. It had been at least 5 minutes of convulstions from when he started to when Wade got home (I watched the clock). It was probably another 5 from that point to when the crew all got there. They later apologized for being so slow. I thought they were pretty fast considering all the icy roads.


Anne-Marie came and got Gage at some point. I have to thank her for all that she did. I am so glad that we have such a good friend that lives less than 50 feet across the street from us. She fed Gage dinner, she put our dinner away (which was just sitting on the stove and would have gone bad), she got him ready for bed and when we got home they were cuddling under blankets reading books. He said he had a great time and liked to look at the fire truck the best.

We loaded Noah in the ambulance and they tried to start an IV in his hand and couldn’t get one started. He was still pretty nonresponsive and I was really scared. Poor Wade as standing outside the ambulance trying to stay out of the way. They finally decided to leave anyway and on the way to the hospital he started to come out of it and got really mad at the bald stranger EMT man and started yelling for his Dada. This was the best thing ever! It also helped the EMT find a vein and start an IV in his hand.

He was responding when he got to the hospital and he really calmed down when he finally got to see Wade. They finally let me hold him again and he fell asleep. His temperature was never higher than 101.4 so that was the strange thing to me. He’s had a high fever before that has been much higher (104) but the Dr. that we talked to said it isn’t always how high the temperature of the fever is, it’s how fast it comes on. She said I did the right thing by calling and I probably couldn't have prevented this from happening.

We were able to come home last night after about 2 or 3 hours and he is ok. They told us that about 10 percent of kids have seizures from fevers and only 10% of those 10% have reoccurring ones. We shouldn’t be worried (but we still are). I have a nephew and a sister with epilepsy. They found out that he had an ear infection (never showed any signs) so he has to be on antibiotics and we have to give him Tylenol 24 hours a day for 48 hours. I was so scared I wouldn’t hear the alarm go off last night to give him his medicine I didn’t get much sleep. We debated sleeping in his room but decided if we turned the monitor on really high that would be the best. We never use monitors so it was really hard to trust them and I just wanted to hold him and rock him all night.

A few things that this makes me wonder: Last time he had a high fever it was after his 1 year shots. This was a week after his 15 month shots. Wade says the good still outweighs the bad with shots, but it makes me wonder. I also know that last time he had a fever his arms did a jerky thing (similar to a how newborns move) one night when I was holding him. I didn’t think it was a seizure then because it wasn’t prolonged, but looking back now I have to wonder. His arms did the same time last night right before he started to convulse. I will have to talk to our pediatrician and find out more information.

Wade and our John (Anne-Marie’s husband) were able to give him a blessing last night when we got home. It was nice that we have that comfort. I am so thankful for all the help we received last night from Anne-Marie, John the EMTs, firemen (who showed up first) and for Heavenly Father blessing us that he could recover so soon. We are very blessed that he is ok. He is acting normal today, wrestling, chasing and steam rolling his brother and having fun. It is amazing how fast you can be reminded how important your life and family are to you.
(And so everyone knows, I kept praying the whole time. I think that is the only reason I didn't lose it. I lost it after when we were driving home from the hospital. Wade kept telling me it was over but I couldn't hold it in anymore. Writing this made me cry too. I really think we were blessed.)