Another ER visit

Seriously, I think that the ER doctors are starting to know me by name. Next time I go, they'll probably have my favorite latte waiting for me at check-in and my favorite music playing on the loud speakers. They should. I've been there enough lately.

Today's trip to the ER started at Costco. We walked through the door and Joey started to shiver. At first, we thought it was the fans. It was eighty degrees out so we laughed at his chattering teeth and rubbed his arms a few times. By the time we made it to the back of the store, he was shaking pretty hard. We decided that maybe he really was cold in the store so we decided to head home and come back to Costco another day. He continued shivering in the car. We cranked the heat (I know, I know, rookie mistake) and sweated through the trip home.

By the time we got home, Joey was trembling hard. I brought him upstairs and took his temperature and was shocked to see that it was 104. I wasn't overly worried. He was acting normally apart from the shivering and he's had fevers higher than 105 before. I took him downstairs and gave him some Motrin and rubbed his back for awhile. When his fever didn't drop, I called the pediatrician.

The pediatrician said that while his temperature was high, he was probably fine and told me to give him a luke-warm bath. I hung up the phone and as I stood to put him in the bath, his body convulsed. A few seconds later, he was in a full-in seizure, with his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body convulsing. My husband grabbed the baby and I called 911.

The seizure stopped a few minutes later (the longest few minutes of my life) and Joey immediately lost consciousness. The 911 operator said that his body was so exhausted from seizing that he simply couldn't maintain consciousness. We were told to check his breathing and keep him cool and wait for the ambulance.



The ambulance arrived with lights and sirens and the paramedics were able to wake Joey up. They checked his vitals and hooked him up to a whole bunch of monitors and whisked him into the ambulance to head to the children's hospital. There, he was rushed into the children's ER and stabilized. The doctor did a variety of tests and we waited and waited and waited while Joey was put on observation.

In the end, they determined that Joey had suffered a febrile seizure from a sudden spike in temperature. They gave him medication and sent us home, asking us to wake him up every couple of hours to make sure his fever stayed under 102. They said that there is a good chance that he'll have another seizure in the next few days, so we're under strict instructions to call 911 as soon as his fever starts to spike. I'm nervous. The doctor didn't seem too worried.

So, we're home now. Joey's asleep in his room and sleeping soundly. His fever is down and hopefully it'll stay down. For now, I'm just hoping to avoid another trip to the ER. I've spent enough time there lately.