Super Scary

So tonight we had another super scary event with one of our kids. Here's the summary:

Evelyn woke up from her nap feeling a bit warm and not wanting to eat or drink anything. I figured it was her 2 year molars since she had been waking up some nights and was chomping on anything she could get her hands on. Anyway, I ended up giving her some Tylenol because she started to get warmer and I had to leave for a New Intern Welcome party for Doctor's Hospital. I handed off kid duty to Patrick (who also had to watch our friends Nathan and Carter since Ashli was joining me) and I was off to mingle and recruit new doctor's spouses. As soon as I pulled into the driveway of the party Patrick called. In a very calm voice he said, "I just called and ambulance for Evelyn." I thought he was joking because we kid about how crazy she is and adventurous - never would I think he was serious. I even told him that he needed to quit joking - I was just getting to the party and had to go. Then he said again - very matter-of-factly (in doctor mode now that I look back), "I am serious. I had to call and ambulance, Evelyn had a grand mal seizure and was not breathing for almost 2 minutes. She is ok now, but we need to take her to the hospital." I immediately dropped everything off and headed home.

He said he had taken all the kids outside to play and she was running around like normal - maybe a bit slower than usual - but nothing way wrong. Suddenly, the boys wanted to go in for a drink so he turned to get her and saw her start walking funny and then she just collapsed. She started seizing in all 4 quadrants and her eyes rolled back and she was not breathing. She had a rapid pulse but was starting to turn blue. He took her inside and checked her airway, breathing, circulation. He called 911 and she started to gasp and breathe on her on again. She slowly came out of the seizure and stabilized but was in a post-seizure state...sort of like a rag doll. She didn't care when the EMS took vitals, etc. I got home when the ambulance was there so they let us drive her in since she was stable and Patrick was a doctor. We got top notch care at Children's and Ashli took Gavin for us during the whole thing (A HUGE THANKS).

I had an eerie sense of calm, maybe because Patrick was so calm, maybe because my mommy instinct told me she was ok. Evelyn has had a history of febrile seizures before so we knew that a rapid increase in her temperature could set it off. We have to be very careful even when she shows the slightest sign of a temp. It turns out she has hand, foot, mouth virus which caused the high spike in temp, which caused her seizure. We are grateful there was a logical reason behind it - at least we don't have to worry about WHY she seized. But we always have to be careful when she gets a temp because once they have multiple episodes, they are more likely to keep getting them. The febrile seizures usually go away by the time they are 6 - but that is 4 more years of worry!!!

We want to make all of our friends aware - since we were at playgroup, over friend's houses, etc and this is a communicable disease. Please check for fatigue, fever, rash on hands, feet and mouth. Ashli told us Nathan also spiked a fever tonight - so it is definitely going around!