Saturday, January 19, 2008

the post i didn't want to write...

This past Monday Grant had another seizure.  This one lasted much longer but seemed to be due to a temperature spike.  Peter was at work and I was alone at home with the boys.  About 5 minutes before it happened I noticed him acting a little funny.  Grant is a super active little guy and he just slowed down and seemed a little "off".  He was sitting on his knees and he put his head down on the ground while I had started feeding Henry.  I asked if he was feeling ok and he told me he wanted water.  His water bottle was in his room so I walked him back there and told him to get his water and come out.  I went back to feeding henry in the living room and made a mental note to check his temp when I was done.  After around 5 minutes he hadn't returned and it seemed a little quiet with the exception of a weird noise I'd heard.  I fully expected him to be in his room sitting there reading books like he often does.  I walked back to his room to find him about a step away from where I'd left him but on the ground convulsing.  There's just nothing worse than seeing his normally bright & smiley eyes totally glazed over and unresponsive.  I called 911 and he was still convulsing for quite awhile after they arrived.  At one point he took a deep breath and kind of seemed to come out of it a bit but then continued to tremor.  Peter got home in time to go to the hospital with him again while I stayed home with Henry.  They basically said follow up with the neurologist and they thought it was due to a temperature spike.  His fever was 102.7 when the EMT checked it at our house.  That night we gave him tylenol to keep the fever down but became alarmed when his fever seemed to be pretty high.  A call to the pediatric nurses line had us giving him alternate amounts of motrin and tylenol every 3 hours to keep his fever down.  Throw Henry needing to eat in there and no one got much sleep.  The next evening his temp rose from 99.8 to 103.9 in span of 5 minutes and he started shaking and I was sure he was going to have another seizure.  We took him into Children's Hospital where the doctor found we were going to the neurologist the next day and then seemed to be disinterested in anything other than getting us out the door.  On Thursday we went into the pediatric neurologist and he told us they were more concerned about the first seizure he had with no fever.  If he has another seizure without a fever then he'd be considered epileptic at that point and would have to go on anti-seizure medication.  He said he very well may have more febrile seizures due to temperature spikes and the tremors and things could have been due to chills and just feeling rotten.  He's given us some medication in case Grant would have another seizure lasting more than 4 minutes and said he hopes we don't have to use it and that he never hears from us again.  I fully agree.  We have the Sleep EEG scheduled for the end of the month so we can fully rule out any other issues but I'll be glad to get it all behind us... again.  I don't know how I'll ever be able to sleep without his baby monitor on my nightstand or even take a shower without calling out to him 20 times to make sure he's responsive and ok.  He's already getting annoyed with me asking "Are you alright?" about 50 times a day.  If you didn't know any better you would have no idea that anything was going on with him.  He's been running around like normal except for those bouts of high temps and has even been sent to the naughty corner a fair amount of times for random things.  It's hard to just carry on normally though and with Peter in Japan this entire week I think I've got a rough week ahead of me.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

-misty

3 comments:

rkimedes said...

Just be sure and let me know if you need anything. Pete being gone can't make things any easier *hug*

Anonymous said...

Misty! I am so sorry! I have been there before and have to agree that seeing your little one like that is the WORST!!! Let me know if there is anything I can do or if you just need to talk!!!

Joanna said...

Well damnit. I saw the title of this blog entry and my heart just sank. I'm so sorry. It is sooo scary, and having Peter away makes it even harder. I wish there was something I could do. You all will be in my thoughts and prayers.