Scariest Minutes of My Life

I have aged.....10 years at least in the last 2 days. Following a wonderful weekend of playing outside and having great fun, E developed a very low fever Sunday evening. He is cutting 2 year molars and was acting normal in every other way, so I did what I'd like to think most mom's would do - I gave him some Motrin and put him to bed.
At 3 a.m. we were awakened by one, strange cry - Moms, you know the one - it's not scared, hurt, angry or sad - it's that weird sound that you can't identify. We both got out of bed and found our little guy having a seizure in his crib. I consider myself pretty medically intelligent and quite level headed in the face of an emergency and I will tell you that I crumbled and completely lost my head. There is nothing that can describe the fear and the helplessness that goes through you at a time like that. I stood, sobbing and hysterical in the middle of my living room holding my baby and I had no clue what to do. His seizure lasted all of 2-3 minutes, but it was the next 30 that were even harder. He was totally limp and unresponsive, his pupils were dialated and fixed, he wouldn't look at anything or anyone or turn to sound or light, he wouldn't pull back when pinched. I still hear the loud moan he kept doing and it sends chills down my spine.

By the time we arrived via EMS at the hospital he was beginning to show some signs of life and within about 5 hours he was inching closer to normal; exhausted, but normal. We were admitted and it turns out he has influenza. Not "the flu" like everyone thinks with the stomach problems, real influenza - the one you get vaccinated for. He, like thousands of others, has the strain that was not in the vaccine this year. Really, there is nothing you can do, but treat the fevers and keep hydrated and ride it out, so that's what we are doing. The doctor expects a complete recovery in about 7-10 days and has given us about a 33% chance that we will see another seizure in the future if he has a strange infection or high fever.

I was, once again, amazed by the bravery and resilience of my little child. He put up with all the poking and prodding like a champ. He spent nearly 39 hours in that bed in my arms and didn't fuss a whole lot. In the very early morning hours today he was saying "done, done" as soon as a nurse walked in before she even started messing with him.

We are home now, showered, bathed, fed and E is resting comfortably. I'm not sure if I will be able to put him to bed tonight as if nothing ever happend - we'll see.

People may think I'm nuts, but yes, I took pictures of him - I figure moments are moments whether they're good, bad or otherwise and this was definitely a major occurrance in all of our lives. Here's my brave, little soldier:

I was trying to get his thumb out - after 5 trys, the only place they could get his IV was in his thumb-sucking hand - very upsetting for him!

(Don't mind scary-looking mommy)


Gettin a little daddy-love