What an awful week it's been!!
WARNING - long, detailed post!
Last weekend {9/16 - 9/18} Mason came down with a stomach bug. It came out of no where - no warning signs! He had been fine all day at school and in the evening. We were at the grocery store and he puked everywhere {and a lot}. That was around 7:15pm. We left the store and started heading home. He puked 2 more times before we got home. It was the saddest thing in the world. He had no clue what was going on or what to do. He kept saying "Mommy, Daddy" in the saddest.makes.your.heart.hurt voice. All he wanted to do was lay his head on my chest. Needless to say I went through about 6 shirts that night. His vomiting lasted until about 1:30 in the am. He went to sleep around then and woke up around 4am and was thirsty. We gave him some juice/water and he also ate a couple crackers and we went back to sleep. He held all of that down just fine. He woke up well on Saturday morning and had a little breakfast. Then he took a FIVE {whoa} hour nap. He was catching up from the day night before. All day Saturday he was fine and held down everything he ate/drank. That evening around the same time {7:00ish} I started feeling ill. It hit me hard around 10:30pm. I was vomiting every 30 minutes until 7am the next day. Sunday I caught up on some sleep. Nate came in and told me Mason got sick a couple more times. Nothing big, just a couple small ones. The rest of the day he was fine. He ate, drank and played hard. We sent him to school on Monday thinking he was fine and that our stomach bug was gone. I wasn't at work an hour and they were calling us to come pick him up.
Nate and I left work and went to pick him up. I am so thankful now that we both went to get him. On the way to pick him up we called his normal Pedi. and made an appointment. She was able to get him in right away. She checked his chest, ears and throat...his throat was a little red so she swabbed for Strep throat. It came back negative. She chalked it up to a stomach bug considering I had it as well. She told us what to do to keep him hydrated and we were on our way.
Once we got home Mason was acting sleepy so I thought he may nap. I changed his diaper and put him in a t-shirt. He didn't want to lay down so I took him to the living room. He sat in Nate's lap and was drinking some water out of a sippy cup. I ran out to the car to grab our bags and when I came back in I saw Mason going into a seizure. I dropped the million things in my hands and fell to my knees screaming. {I know, I know} It was all I could do. I was freakin' out. Scariest thing I've ever seen before. I asked Nate what to do and he said call 911.
I called 911 and was connected while he was still seizing. It seemed like it took forever to go through the hundreds of questions they ask. The dispatcher stayed n the phone with me while they sent the ambulance. She had me tell her what Mason was doing each step of the way. At one point she asked, "is he breathing" and my heart dropped to the floor. Nate confirmed that he was. As soon as he came out of the seizure we went to the front porch and Nate held Mason's very limp body while I was on the phone with 911. He fell into a pretty deep sleep that scared the fire out of me. They said that was normal. But it was terrifying to us. He could barely open his eyes. We counted his breathing, which never skipped a beat. I packed a bag to take to the hospital. I couldn't think straight for things we might need. Thankfully I did think of our phone chargers! The ambulance arrived about 25 minutes later. HELLO living in the country! It seemed like an eternity to me. The paramedics were fabulous! They took Mason's temperature and he wasn't running any fever so they said we needed to take him to be evaluated. Apparently if there as a fever, then it would have been a febrile seizure and they wouldn't have had to do much testing. But it wasn't.
While we were buckling Mason's car seat into the ambulance a Sheriff pulls up to our house. You have got to be freakin' kidding me! The paramedic told me that it's standard if you call 911 for a child's sake. The Sherriff walks up...doesn't really say much and just watches what we're doing. The paramedic finally spoke up and said, he's been sick with a virus and just had a seizure. I was holding Mason in my lap at that point and balling my eyes out. He asked me Mason's name and dob. And then he asked the same for me. I looked at the clipboard he was writing on and the line he put my name on said SUSPECT. I lost it. I am sure it's a standard form...but it hurt my heart so much that they would put my name next to the word suspect. I would never in a million years hurt my son or do anything to let him get hurt. :(
The drive to Children's Hospital in Dallas seemed like it took 2 hours {only 30 minutes}. Nate's parent's beat us there and were waiting for us. I called my family from the ambulance and they were there shortly after. We arrived around 2:00pm and they had a room waiting on us. They immediately got started with Mason. They took all of his vitals and then a Dr. came to talk to us. We went through everything starting with Friday. He told us the procedure would more than likely be:
Bloodwork
Lumbar puncture {gasp}
Cat-scan
But that he had to talk to the Head Doctor to be certain.
I started balling and praying to God that Mason would not have to get a spinal tap. Nathan had to have one several years back and still has pain there. It was the most awful thing ever. I prayed and prayed and prayed.
Boom!
Power of Prayer!
The Doctor came back and said they would not need to do a lumbar puncture! We were all so relieved. They were going to start with blood work and go from there. They, and when I say "They" I mean a 6 foot 7 {no lie} nurse, another nurse, Nathan, his mom and I had to hold Mason down for the IV. It was pure awful. I didn't watch, I buried my face in his bed. I just held and rubbed his feet to let him know I was there. He did well, considering! They took a couple vials of blood and sent it off for the lab. He had a small IV drip of fluids in the meantime. A couple hours later they came back and told us he was dehydrated and his glucose levels were down. They gave him some juice boxes and wanted to check back later. They also had to take a urine sample. Mason did extremely well with that. We waited and waited. Mason slept on and off while in the ER. He was getting more exhausted by the minute, though. He had tons of visitors and his face lit up every time someone came into his room {that wasn't wearing scrubs}!
Around 8ish we were under the impression that we'd be going home soon...but then they came in and told us that Mason needed to be admitted for fluids and evaluation. When we got there his glucose was at a 57, on the 2nd check it was at a 56. It should have gone up after he had the juice and fluids and it didn't. Around 10:30 they got us his room and we moved. He slept on the way there...but of course woke when we got to his room because they had to take vitals and whatnot. They did another glucose test around midnight and it was up to a 122...which was such a relief to all of us. And they only had to poke his finger! Mason didn't mind so much, but threw a fit to get the bandaid off. :)
When we finally got to sleep it was glorious! Mason slept well, as did we...given the circumstances. The nurse was phenomenal and was very quiet every time she had to come in and check Mason's IV {every hour}. Mason woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed sometime after 8am the next morning and was in the best of moods. He was refreshed and ready to party!! Our sweet, happy and silly little Mason was back!!! I can't tell you how much I needed to see that. The sleep and IV fluids did wonders! It was a challenge trying to keep him still and keep from hurting his IV.
They unhooked his IV fluids around 10ish and he was free!! He kept roaming his hospital room and at one point he started counting "1,2,3,4,5" - Nathan and I looked at each other like "Surely he didn't just count to five"...and then he did it again, over and over and over. We were so shocked. We count to 3 at home all the time...but they must count beyond 3 at school! Our little smart boy!!
The Dr came and saw him around 11:00ish and said everything was looking great and that we'd be going home soon. They discharged us after lunch time. We took Mason to see the
Trainscapes at the hospital and he was in awe! It was so adorable to watch his face light up every time a train rolled by. We let him enjoy the trains for a while and then we headed home. I thought he'd crash and nap on the way home, but he didn't.
I have to say that
Children's Hospital is nothing short of amazing! They took such great care of our little man, and us too. We can't say enough great things about them.
We were definitely blessed!! We had so many people praying for our little guy...even people we didn't know. It was overwhelming and amazing! Nathan and I are so thankful for each one of you that were praying. This was one of the most scariest experiences of our lives. I pray that no one ever has to experience that. Seizures are awful to watch, especially when it's your 15 month old child. Below is a great site for Seizures in children, just in case you want to read up.
Seizures in Children
Below are all camera phone pictures {all we had at the hospital}.
The next morning when he was feeling better.
