From bad to worse

First of all, thanks to everyone for your sympathy, your stories and your prayers. I promise this is the last time I'll write about our current sickness. I hope.

Over the weekend, Keith and I both had a little visit from the flu fairy, fortunately we were each worse on different days. Even with his fever remaining fairly high, Ethan's behavior finally began to return to it's normal crashing, banging, jumping off the furniture state. So, at least he is recovering.

Last night, Drew was pretty fussy so I took his temp. and it was high. Even though we gave him Tylenol every four hours, his fever would rise significantly in between doses and he was miserable. Another fitful, fearful night's sleep for us all.

This morning, Drew's temperature rose to 103.6 and he wasn't due for more medicine so I called his pediatrician to check up on a dosage of Motrin to alternate with the Tylenol. I left a message for the nurse and went to take a shower. Keith was holding Drew and rocking him at this point and suddenly I heard him yell out, "I think Drew's having a seizure!"

Sure enough, his head was falling backward and his eyes rolling back as his whole body silently fixed and shook. Even though I knew what was happening and the likely reason for it, it was unbelievably scary. When he began to turn blue around his mouth and we weren't sure if he was breathing, Keith called 911 and I attempted to do some rescue breathing which may or may not have been necessary. He came out of it soon after that and began making little noises so we knew he was ok. The whole seizure was probably only two or three minutes but seemed a long, slow torture.

Sometimes it's nice to live within a stone's throw of the fire-station. The ambulance arrived within two minutes. They checked Drew's vitals and whisked us away to the E.R. Keith and Ethan stayed behind and Keith told me later that Ethan burst into tears as we pulled away. "How come I don't get to go in the ambulance?", he wailed. Keith explained that Drew was very sick. "But I'm sick TOO! It's not fair!"

We spent a couple hours or so at the hospital with poor, sleepy Drew getting poked and prodded, x-rayed and monitored. Febrile seizures are fairly common and he is ultimately ok but I would be very happy never to experience such excitement again.