Seizure #4

Well.. the poor little guy had another seizure earlier this evening. Both Ben and I were sick last week.. me more than Ben. He was still a little off over the weekend and today.. not specifically sick.. just not acting totally like himself.

Today was a typical Monday.. I was home from work and Ben and I ran some errands (and ran into someone) this morning and then it was home for naptime. I built an awesome train setup while Ben was sleeping (I have pictures if I can get around to uploading them). When he woke up from his nap, it was like Christmas morning. He saw the train setup and giggled and laughed and clapped. He played well for a while. I noticed that his eyes never lost that "I just woke up" haze.

Shiela had a doctor's appointment downtown this afternoon, so Ben and I piled into the car and drove down to meet her. While we were waiting for her, Ben dozed in his carseat. Not the norm after a 3 hour nap. Not the norm with his eyes at half-mast.

We watched him closely as we drove home. We had done this before.. why does his temp decide to spike when we're in the CAR. It's probably because we're driving around at 4:30pm when a kid's temp is the most likely to start jumping up for the evening. ugh!

He got warmer and warmer and kept yawning. As we got closer to our neighborhood I stepped on the gas. Ben giggled as we hit a few bumps in the car (at least we weren't hitting any other cars this time). We got home and ran him upstairs where I went to strip him down and change his diaper/check his temp and shiela grabbed the motrin. After we got that into him, we moved out to the living room. his temp was at 103.2'F.

Shiela sat with him in the rocker while I went to crush up one of his Klonopin (anti-seizure med) and mix it with some jello. He took that down fine (along with several bites of jello sans med. Then he snuggled against shiela and we watched and waited. We do think that the Motrin and Klonopin helped, but in the end he did end up having a seizure still. We were both watching him and shiela was holding him and said that she felt a rush of warmth as his temp spiked up even more and then he got really still. I pinched his shoulder in a way that one of the original neurologists showed me to test to see if he was responsive. He wasn't. It only lasted a few seconds. Just long enough for shiela to stand up to bring him somewhere to lay him down and he was already starting to fuss. The seizure had broken as quickly as it started.

We called his pediatrician. He'll be going in tomorrow for a checkup to see if he's got a virus brewing or if his ears are acting up. We'll be doing the Motrin/Tylenol rounds through the night to keep his temperature down until we get in to see the doc. We'll also keep the Klonopin coming. We're supposed to give that up to 3 times per day while he has a temperature and is at risk for a fever induced seizure (regardless of if we're calling them febrile seizures or epileptic fever-induced seizures).

All in all.. we did well. Ben was wobbly and irritable for a while... but he played well this evening after the seizure and even had some dinner and some milk from his tippy. He's asleep now. We'll be waking him up in about 2 hours for his next Motrin dose.

Shiela and I exchanged a high-five once we were comfortable that we had moved past the "seizure zone" and Ben's temp was coming down and he was acting more like himself. I'm sure it will always be a nerve wracking experience.. seeing your child sick just doesn't get easier.. but it does help to understand what is going on and to feel like we can help him and make him feel better.

I REALLY want to watch a disaster movie on the TV in our bedroom while I doze off to sleep. Hmmm.. that goes against the no-tv-in-the-bedroom rule. Did I honestly only make it one night? I'll let you know tomorrow!