Pages

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Worst night of my life.

Let me tell  you about the worst night of my life.....

I come home from work on Tuesday to learn that Joey had to be picked up from daycare.  He had a temp of 102, was grumpy, wanted to be held and was all around not feeling very well.  No big deal, we've been through fevers before.  Nothing this high,  but I was convinced we could handle it.

We gave him Tylenol at about 5:30 and took turns letting him lay on us.  I should have known then that something was weird.  Joey NEVER sits still.  Never just lays and needs to be held.  What was also a bit frightening was he was panting.  There were 2 or 3 extra breaths in his breathing cycle and they were semi rapid.

Then he started to randomly shake.  It was a lot like his try to poop shake, or the cold sweat shakes.  But then there was random twitches of his arms and legs.  This is when we called the consulting nurse.  She told us the breathing was normal and the shaking wasn't.  She wanted us to keep an eye on the shaking and if it continued for 20 more minutes to get in to the ER.

Ok.

Literally as we put the phone down I start to lift Joey up to take his temperature and he starts to have a seizure.  He got super stiff, eyes rolled back into his head and his jaw locked.

I shot up, put Joey on the floor, Rick got next to him and I dialed 911.

The 911 dispatcher instructed us to take all his clothes off and keep him from shaking violently and hurting himself.  We needed to cool him down and prevent him from choking on any saliva or vomit that was in his mouth.

I was doing the best I could to relay this information to Rick but I couldn't bring myself to get close to him and get in the action.  I couldn't see Joey like that.

So I'm shouting orders from the hallway and stealing glances when I had to tell the 911 lady what he was doing. Then she had me put the phone up to Joey so she could hear if he was making noises.  He wasn't.  Which meant he wasn't getting air.  She then instructed us to pick him up and get him on a hard surface so we could give him CPR.  As Rick was scooping out saliva from his mouth he pressed on his chest a little bit and Joey took a deep breath.  The 911 lady heard this and heard Joey cry and then instructed us to just wait until the paramedics got here.

At this point Joey is breathing but his eyes are locked in the back of his head.  All the color is drained from his body and he broke out in hives on one side of his face and neck.

I'm still on the phone with 911 and the paramedics shot through the door.  5 of my new favorite people.

They checked his vitals and temp, took a blood sugar test and put quick acting Tylenol up his bum.  Then he vomited.  A lot.  In my hoody.  Curdled milk from the baba he had about an hour before.  The temperature inside his body was so hot it literally curdled the milk.

His temp was 103 and his blood sugar was low and they took us to the ER.

At the ER we basically tried to rule out any sort of infection.  Ear infection, UTI, pneumonia, etc.  He had nothing.  And his temp was 104.4.  He got a quadruple dose of Tylenol and we waited for it to go down.  We left at about 1 in the morning and Joey still had a temp of 101.

We were sent home with instructions to dose him every four hours with Ibuprofen and Tylenol and told that this sort of thing just happens sometimes to babies.

I don't know how to accurately describe what it felt to watch my child go through that.  I have visions of him struggling to breath and in a locked position burned into my brain.  It was the most horrific and terrifying night of my life.

I'm proud of the way Rick and I handled this and I'm thankful to the 911 dispatcher who walked me through everything and the paramedics who were so so nice.  I'm thankful Joey is fine and will not suffer any permanent damage from this and won't remember it even happened.

I wish that was the same for me and Rick.

Waiting for the fever to break


Auntie Shanny showed up!!

Still waiting.

Finally get to go home.

1 comment:

  1. OMG. I'm crying sitting here imagining this. You guys are strong and capable parents Good JOB you guys!! May this be the scariest thing you ever have to deal with again!

    ReplyDelete