A Crisis

To celebrate the anniversary featured in my previous post, Dave and I have plans for a weekend getaway later in the month, so we weren't expecting to do much of anything on our actual anniversary. In fact, we were expecting that he would be out of town, as usual, only returning that evening. But it happened that we enjoyed the whole day together, and that an unusually quiet one, which was a blessing that came to us in a very roundabout way - and here's how.

(Many of you have probably heard this already, but for those who haven't...) Over the course of last week, the three older kids had each in turn come down with some mild virus that produced only a fever and the general ill feeling that comes along with a high fever. Each child recovered within 24 hours with rest and some Motrin. On Thursday morning, everyone was well, so we went to a LLL meeting, followed by lunch at Chick-fil-A, then came home for naps and quiet time. Chase woke up from his nap about 3:00, still perfectly well, then sometime around 3:30, he began to feel warm became, as if he didn't feel well. I tried to give him some Motrin, but he was unusually cooperative, so I let him rest on the couch , hoping he would be more willing to take his medicine shortly. He drifted in and out of sleep, and I read books and entertained the older ones, and at about 5:30 or so, he woke up and asked to be held. He felt really warm by that point, and I thought about the Motrin again. I should have insisted on it. A little later, he asked to nurse, and I let him, but only after about a minute, he slipped off, much like he would if he had fallen asleep. But when I looked at him, his eyes were open, and he was looking off to the side. As I was looking at him, his lips, and then the rest of his body began to tremble - just slightly, but enough to catch my attention. Something looked wrong, so I said his name. He didn't even look at me, and that prompted the first stab of fear. I stood up with him, and shook him gently, saying his name more forcefully, and he still didn't respond. I noticed then that he wasn't breathing or swallowing, and that his lips were turning blue. I panicked, because I didn't know what was happening. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered something about febrile seizures, but I didn't know what they looked like. All I knew at the time was that he was clearly unconscious, and worse still, he was not breathing. I held him close, and heard a breath sound, to my relief, but it still wasn't normal, in-and-out breathing. He still wasn't responding to me. I grabbed the phone and called 911 - in near hysteria, I admit - instructing the other kids, who had come out to see what all the commotion was about, to stay in the back. The 911 operator told me to be calm at one point, and that was a little like a nurse telling a laboring woman to not make so much noise, as it doesn't do any good - "He's not BREATHING!" I yelled in that poor operator's ear. Sometime in the middle of the call, Chase came out of it - I don't know any other way to describe it. He began to to breathe more normally, and was responsive again. Shortly afterward, the paramedics arrived, listened to what happened, and told me it was probably a febrile seizure. They asked if someone could come for the kids so that we could take Chase to the hospital, and I called a friend from church. One of our neighbors agreed to watch them until she arrived, and with the kids dispatched, Chase and I were loaded into the ambulance. When we arrived at the ER, several nurses and then a doctor came in to check him and hear the story, and I cried every time I told it, even though I knew he was okay. Some of them were sympathetic, others were less so, and I can't blame them, really - I'm sure they see all kinds of things there, and from a medical perspective, Chase was just fine. They gave him some Motrin, took a chest x-ray, and waited for him to improve. At about 8, he began to talk again, and by about 9, he was laughing and playing. Another hour after that, they let us go home, with instructions to see our pediatrician in the morning.

Friday I was exhausted, I think just from the emotional stress of the day before. But my Mom had come down and taken the other kids back home with her, and Dave, who had rushed to the hospital, was home, so we were able to hang out with Chase and with each other. I took Chase to the doctor that morning for a recheck, but by then he didn't even have a fever. Later in the day I discovered just how much energy he bounces off his older siblings. It was tiring! I don't think he remembered anything from the day before, so, as it often is with mothers, it will be I alone who will be left with the memories of those harrowing moments. Ah, well. But it's enough that he is perfectly fine - for all that, it wasn't at all serious, and even his bout with the fever was shorter than anyone else's.