{Another trip to Children's Hospital}

Saturday morning Nathan and I had planned to get out and complete all of our Christmas shopping. Nate's mom had agreed to keep Mason for the morning/afternoon. We woke up on Saturday and Mason was great, a little croupy, but great. He was playful and silly and eager to go to Nana and Papas. Nathan took Mason to get donuts while I finished getting ready. Then we took him to Nate's mom and dad's. Still good. 
We went to Toys R Us first. I think we got there at 9:45. We had just enough time to get Mason's "Santa" gift before we got a call that he had thrown up pretty bad.  That was around 10:30. He was in the bathtub and saying that he was feeling better. They said he acted fine and that it might have been just a one time thing. He had some drainage, so we all started praying it was just that.    We headed back that way. I couldn't just hear that he was "okay", I had to see him. Hug him and kiss him. When we got there he was playing and acted fine. He ate and entire gatorade-type popsicle. We hung out for another hour or so and decided to take Mason home to get a nap. On our way to the car Mason got sick again. Luckily we were outside.   We went home and he played for a little bit and then Nate got him to lay down for a few. He slept for about 30-45 minutes and then woke up. I could see it in his face he was about to get sick again. And he did. And it was a lot. And it was our deciding factor to take him straight to Children's. He wasn't taking in enough for the amount that was coming out. We were scared of dehydration and what happened last year. Read about that here.
We checked into the ER at 3:45 and were introduced to the not so glamorous side of Children's. The last time we were there it was by ambulance, so our care was a little nicer. We sat in a filthy waiting room with 5-10 people with masks on. It was obvious it's flu season! Mason wanted to get up and play on the toys but we wouldn't let him. I felt bad, but I didn't want him to get any sicker. He had a full lesson of germs during that wait! 
After an hour and half or so later they finally called us back. They took Mason's vitals and then put us in a room. Mason threw up again right when we got in there. That was 5:30. We told the nurse and she laid a towel over it said she would notify housekeeping. We sat in this room for what seemed like forever. The housekeeper finally came about an hour and a half later to clean up the mess on the floor. And at 7:30 we finally saw the doctor. She checked him over and he wasn't dehydrated at that point. She ordered him a Zofran tablet and wanted to give it 30 minutes to set in. The nurse brought it in and then took us to an "internal waiting room". Again, filty, lots of really really sick people. I kept Mason in my lap and tried to cover his mouth as best I could. At this point I was so ready to get out of there! Mason drank apple juice and gatorade and held them down. About an hour later the doctor checked him and he was doing great. She got our discharge papers ready and we went to a room for one last round of vitals. They prescribed him Zofran.

We left the hospital and headed to get his prescription and a few other essentials. We let Mason pick out a toy because he had been so well behaved at the hospital. Throughout the whole sick day he was so sweet and patient and kind.    We finally got home and Nate's parents met us there with food. Nathan and I hadn't eaten all day and were starving. But of course at that point we were just exhausted and too tired to eat. We had a few bites and that was it.    Mason was so tired. It was around 11:30pm and he was upset that he couldn't have any milk. He fell asleep in my lap watching Toy Story around 11:45.    We took it easy on Sunday. Mason was great and starving! That boy asked for everything we had in the house, plus some. He did great all day! Nate took off Monday to be with him. We wanted to give him another day to rest. I took him to school on Tuesday, but picked him up early. We wanted to ease back into it!    He's been great ever since. Praise the Lord!!!

{Our trip to Children's Hospital in Dallas}

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.