Wednesday morning at 12:30 am, I woke up to one of the kids coughing. It sounded bad so I got out of bed to see which one was coughing. I checked on all 3 kids and they all seemed fine. I laid back down and the coughing started again. I figured out it was Allie, so I went in and had her sit up so I could give her a drink. When she woke up she started screaming and gasping for air. It was really scary, so I called Kevin at work and asked if he thought I needed to take her to the ER. He agreed something wasn't right so he was able to take vacation and come home. He held Allie the rest of the night and she only had one more bad coughing spell.
When I woke up that morning I could tell she had a low grade fever. It was right around 100, so I gave her some meds throughout the day to keep the fever at bay. She was her normal, spunky self all morning and afternoon. She woke up from her nap right before 4 and was still acting fine. She had wanted to call my dad that afternoon and we didn't get a chance to before her nap, so I let her call after her nap. While she was on the phone, she told my dad she wanted him to come hold her. How can you say no to that? So around 5 my parents stopped by. Allie was content on her Papaw's lap.
About 5:30 we could tell Allie wasn't feeling well. She started shaking a bit, which I just thought was her fever coming back on. I took her temp and it was 102.4*. She then proceeded to throw up. I took her in the bathroom to clean her up and she was shaking so bad I needed to have my mom help me get her undressed. I put her in a luke warm bath to rinse her off. She seemed concerned she had dirty hair and was upset I hadn't washed it. I got her dressed and the shaking was still bad. She seemed to only want me so I wrapped her up in a fuzzy blanket and held her tight. She was closing her eyes and being quiet and the shaking had stopped. I called the after-hours clinic and made an appt for her at 7:40. I could tell she was still very warm, (I took her temp and it jumped to 104.2*) so I told her I needed to set her down or let Papaw hold her so I could get her medicine. She didn't talk, and just gave me a very blank stare. I set her in my dad's lap, expecting a protest, but she just sat there. I said to my mom, her lips looked a little purple.
I turned to get the medicine and my parents said she was getting ready to throw up again so I came running with the bucket. She was making no noises and seemed to be trying to throw up. Some came up, but she went completely limp and closed her eyes. At this point we moved to the ground and my dad was holding her and smacking on her back. She was just dead weight, not able to move, and getting more blue by the second.
Kevin, who had been sleeping, came in because of all the commotion. He said "What's going on?", and my mom and I started screaming for him to call 911. I was trying to tell him what had happened as he talked to the dispatcher, while smacking Allies back. My mom tried to do a finger sweep of her mouth and her teeth were clenched shut. Several more seconds went by with no changes. I saw Hayden standing back looking confused and I had a melt down. I started crying and praying, and about that time some more throw up came out, then she started opening and closing her eyes. She seemed to have come back to life. She was still burning up so we took her clothes off and I took her in the bathroom and started wiping a cold wash cloth on her. She wouldn't talk, but just kept looking at me. My dad kept asking her if she could hear us, and she just kept moving her eyes but not talking.
I came back in the family room so we could wait for the paramedics to get here. Hayden came over and started talking to her and she was saying, "yeah" to him. It was music to my ears to hear her talking. The paramedics got here and listened to her chest, and said they thought it sounded like she had a seizure. They gave us the option to await for our appointment, which was over an hour away, or they could take us straight to the hospital by ambulance and get seen immediately. Kevin and I decided to go the ambulance route because she still had a fever and we were scared to death it might happen again.
Kevin got her carseat out of my car and they strapped it to the stretcher. While they were getting things ready, Hayden brought Allie her ni-night that she loves. It just melted my heart. Then my mom said when she came back in the family room, Hayden looked at mom and said, "We should pray for Allie." I almost cried again! It just made my heart happy to know that when he was scared and confused, he knew to pray. That was a good mommy moment.
I rode in the ambulance with Allie, and my dad drove Kevin to the hospital. The doctor came in immediately and we went through the whole story of what happened. He ordered blood work, a catheter for urine testing, flu and RSV testing, along with a chest x-ray. Holding her down so she could get poked and prodded and swabbed was so hard. She obviously wasn't happy with any of those nurses and she started showing some attitude and I loved it! She was giving them looks that killed. They would talk to her and she was so snippy! "NO" was the word of the night. "Do you feel better now?" "NO". "Do you want ____?" "NO"! "Let me take your temp" "NO". "We are going to do this real fast" "NO". I was just so happy to hear her talking.
Mom had sent a text and said Hayden wanted us to know he's said 5 prayers for Allie and one was, "God we know you have all the power in your hands." Earlier the nurse brought me in medicine to give Allie for the fever. It was 102 shortly after we arrived and before we left she was super chatty and happy. Her temp was back down to 98.7! The doctor came in and said all the tests were normal, the x-ray looked good, and agreed that she had a febrile seizure and just seemed to have a nasty little virus. We got a little information on what exactly that was and were free to go.
Around 9 we packed up to leave and Allie decided once we got on the road she had to pee, so we let her use the potty I keep in my car. I decided she needed a special treat for all she went through, so we got her a vanilla milkshake. We got one for Hayden too because he was such a good big brother. Allie was welcomed home by a house full! Kevin's parents were here, my mom and Hayden and Krissy were waiting, along with TJ and the cats! She liked the attention and enjoyed showing off her bandaids. She didn't seem to want to go to bed, but once we tucked Hayden and her in, they both fell asleep almost immediately.
Kevin and I spent the next couple hours going over what had happened and crying about how scared we were and rejoicing about Hayden being the silver lining to this dark cloud. We thanked God that my parents just happened to be here. I can't even fathom having to go through all that by myself. While it absoultly was one of the hardest nights ever, I feel like the love we have for each other, as a family, grew so much deeper. And I didnt know that was possible.
These seizures happen to 1 out of 25 kids. To read more about them and what you should do if it happens to you, click this link.
Here's my little Allie today...........
oh this has me in tears. How scarey. Bless her sweet sweet heart and yours too Mommy. Lets hope this never ever happens again and she is on the mend quickly.
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