A Scary April Fool's Day

In the spirit of April Fools, Jackson decided to play a prank on us- except it wasn't actually a prank, it wasn't funny at all, and Jackson had no control over what happened.

This morning Jackson woke up with a fever- sick again! After getting Jefferson out the door to catch the bus, I sat Jackson and Mason down for breakfast and took Jackson's temperature under his arm (I really need to get one of those ear thermometers!). It read 100.5 degrees F. Yep, he definitely had a fever. So while the kids ate, I figured I might as well catch up on those dishes that I had chosen to not clean up last night in favor of going to bed early (and I hate it when I do that because I hate coming downstairs to a dirty kitchen).

While I had my back turned away from the kids, loading the dishwasher, I suddenly heard a thud, only to turn and find Jackson on the floor having a seizure. Although it took me a few seconds to figure out that that was what was happening. I quickly dialed 911, having never experienced a seizure first-hand, and watched as Jackson squirmed on the floor. The lady on the phone helped keep me calm as I explained what Jackson was doing and she explained what to expect when the seizure ended. The seizure lasted less than two minutes, although it felt like an eternity. When the seizure ended, it took about 30 seconds to get Jackson to look at me and then he just closed his eyes to rest (seizures tend to be tiring). He didn't really breathe during the seizure, so his face had turned a bit blue and his oxygen level had decreased.

The paramedics arrived within a few minutes of my call and checked his vitals and put him on oxygen. They weren't concerned about his fall from the stool since he showed no signs of other injury and it was assumed that he fell because he had already started the seizure. They loaded him on the stretcher, which caused him to start crying ("a good sign," one paramedic said) and took him out to the ambulance. Mason started freaking out at that point. I called Nate and told him what happened and then called my parents so that they could take care of Mason while I went to the hospital. My neighbor across the street was alerted by her daughter of the "big trucks" outside (the ambulance, fire truck, and at least one police car), and kindly called to offer assistance with Mason so I could go to the hospital. I took her up on the offer so that I could get out the door faster, instead of having to wait several more minutes for my mom to arrive (Thanks Christine!!!).

I got to the emergency room and was taken to Jackson. The ER people were really nice and they kept telling me how cute and quiet Jackson was. They explained to me what a febrile seizure is and how it is caused. I knew that fevers can sometimes cause a seizure, but, like most people, I thought it was directly related to how high the temperature gets. It's actually more about how fast the temperature rises. The doctor then ordered some tests, to help rule out any serious illnesses that could have contributed to the seizure. First came the RSV test (saline drops squirted into the nose and then suctioned back out), then the chest x-rays (poor Jackson was miserable having those done), and after those came back negative, blood was taken (twice- the first sample ended up getting a clot in it). His white blood cell count came back good and other initial results were good. We'll find out in a couple days if anything else shows up.

Since Nate was working at a client site only a few miles away, he came to visit us at the hospital for a couple hours. Jackson was sad when he left, but I didn't really see the point of Nate staying the whole time since he had a lot of work to do and Jackson was doing okay.

So after 4 hours of tests, watching cartoons, sipping apple juice, munching on graham crackers and cookies, Jackson was released. The ER doc did call our Pediatrician to let him know what happened and we have a follow-up visit scheduled for Thursday.

As for home care, we have to closely monitor Jackson's temperature, so that we can give him Tylenol and Motrin, as needed, to keep his temperature closer to normal. I hope I can wake up during the night to check on him (I'm a deep sleeper), since his temperature was back up to 99.7 degrees F under the arm and I had to give him a dose of Motrin.

Now that the scary story part has been told, I'll tell you the weird part:

Jackson normally goes to a class at KOTM on Tuesdays, which means I'm gone with him at KOTM when Jefferson gets home, so my mom comes over to watch Mason and pick Jefferson up from the bus stop. Today, when Jefferson got home, he asked my mom where I was. She told him that I was with Jackson. Jefferson's immediate reply was, "because Jackson is at the hospital." Taken aback, my mom asked, "why would you think that?" "Because Jackson is sick," Jefferson replied, "and he can't go to class when he's sick." My mom went on to ask why Jefferson said the hospital, not the doctor, and Jefferson just said "because Jackson needed to go to the hospital."

Wow.