scary stuff

As a lot of you already know, we had a pretty big scare with little Glory-Bell. Sunday Glory woke up looking fine to us, we had a normal morning although Kev and I were really tired from a long week of just being parents. We thought about going to church and settled for devotions at home.

Anyway, later in the morning Glory had a fussy period and I figured 'more teething' and gave her two teething tablets. Then she sort of felt hot to me and I had Kev take her temp. It was high, 101 and then 103. We gave her Tylenol and got on Web MD to see if she would be okay with this temp. We carried on as usual going to Kev's Grandma's for Sunday dinner. Glory was a little fussy there, but not bad and we kept taking her temp and it was under control.

When we got home we put Dane down for nap and took turns holding/playing with Glory while we did stuff around the house. Kevin was outside cleaning windows and I was noticing the streaks, thinking, 'I have to look at those streaks all winter...' That's when I put Glory in her little seat and went outside to take matters into my own hands.

Kevin went inside and picked Glory up. He brought her outside and said, "Do you think she looks alright?" I told him to take her inside because she looked cold, she had goose-bumps on the spot of leg between her socks and pants. I came in after Kev and took her. She was shivering and we took her temp again, it was 99 and it had been just over four hours since we gave her Tylenol. Suddenly she was so pale and shaking harder. The goose-bumps were all over her body, even the little hairs on her face were standing up. We took off her shirt to look at her. Her lips were turning blue and I told Kev to call 911. It felt like it took the ambulance forever and in the meantime Glory was starting to look like she was going unconsceince. Her eyelids were droopy and for a second she stopped breathing. I was really freaking out by now about to do CPR. We kept calling her name. Her little hands were in fists and her body was rigid. I could hear the sirens and I sent Kevin to the road to wave them down.

By the time the paramedics got inside she was starting to recover. Her eyes were open and she was shivering, not shaking. Glory and I got into the ambulance and left. Kev woke Dane up to follow. In the ambulance I explained everything and they gave Glory oxygen and listened to her heart. I kept telling them that Dane has a heart condition but that Glory had already had an Ehco on her heart and she was fine.

We were at the hospital for a few hours. They determined her seizure had been a Febrile Seizure caused by a rapid spike in her temperature. When we got to the hospital it was over 103. She had an ear infection we had not known about! I feel so bad about this, but if you know Glory she always puts on a happy face. She had not been crying a lot or tugging her ear. She had been sleeping laying down at night with no complaints.

It was a relief to know that was the cause and not something else. Her bloodwork proved her otherwise healthy and the same with a chest x-ray. The bad news was it could happend again - 50/50 chance.

Of course after we got home, put Dane to sleep, and got Glory in her P.J.s it happened again. It was NOT as extreme and she never lost her breath. We called the peditrician's 24-hour number and explained everything. He told us to stay home as long as she didn't stop breathing or turned blue.

Glory slept all night between Kev and I. She only woke up when we gave her medicine in the middle of the night and then to nurse after that. She was so sweet.

This morning her regular pediatrician looked at her and said she was doing fine. The crappy thing is that she may have these seizures whenever her body temperature spikes like that until she is around 5 years old. They will not cause her any harm.

All moms can contest (and dads) to how hard it is to see your baby struggle, or to be sick. It is so heartbreaking. You want to take that pain away and endure it yourself. I would give my life for my kids. I feel blessed that all the health stuff we have already been through is treatable.

I just want to thank everybody for praying for her...