The Scariest Day of My Life

Thursday morning at 3:30 Cash woke up with a 102.7 fever, I gave him IB Profen and he and I both went back to sleep. I knew when we woke up that he probably had an ear infection. I took him to see Dr. Ledbetter and I was correct. He gave us antibiotics and sent us home. Cash was acting totally fine despite the ear infections. He was playing, eating, and drinking all day. I went to get Jacob and Noah around 2:00 p.m. and we all went to Wal-Mart to get groceries for dinner. We all went to Angi's afterward and everyone was playing and happy. Around 4:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon, Cash started getting fussy, which is normal because that is his nap time. I told Jacob and Noah to stay in the living room while I went and laid down with Cash to get him to sleep. I gave him his sippy cup with juice and he pushed it away. At that moment, Cash started seizing. I knew exactly what was happening due to the fact that I had Febrile Seizures as a child. I have heard a many story of things I used to do, so when he started I knew what this was. Did that calm me? Not a chance, I was hysterically screaming his name as loud as I could and blowing in his face. My baby was in my arms, lifeless, eyes rolled back, arms stiff, unresponsive, and convulsing. I was helpless. I just remember the 911 lady telling me I had to calm down, what??? Was she crazy??? My life was in my arms and not responding. How could I be calm? At one point his lips turned blue, but only for a brief second. When I told this to the 911 operator she proceeded to tell me the steps to do CPR on my baby. I LOST IT, when I figured out what she was telling me to do. When she told me to lay him on the ground, cup my hand under his neck, clear his airway, and place my cheek to his mouth to feel for air, I did feel him breathe. THANK GOD. She then told me to pick him up and console him, tell him its going to be OK, but that I had to calm down because he could feel me being scared. At this point he stopped seizing and was still lifeless and began moaning and crying for about the next 30 minutes. I tried my best to be calm but trust me I was FAR from calm. The actual seizure lasted for, if I had to guess, 30 seconds-2 minutes, I told the 911 operator that I just never thought I would have to do something like this when I was by myself. She then asked if I have a husband, I answered yes and gave her his phone number. 911 then notified Craigan of the situation, they would not let me off the phone until the emergency crew was there. She told him that your son has just had a seizure and you need to meet him and your wife at Children's ER. He was at work and this caught him totally off guard. He was there long before us. It seemed like forever before the ambulance got to Angi's. We got to the ER where I was surrounded by 5 nurses the second I walked through the door with my lifeless baby in my arms, moaning, and crying with his eyes closed. They immediately hooked him up to monitors and asked me tons of questions. They went and got Craigan from the waiting room and then my Dad was there. My mom came and Craigan's parents came as well. His temp was 102. something when we arrived. I have so many numbers in my head that I can't remember exactly. They gave him a suppository of Tylenol to start getting his fever down. The ER Dr. came in asked a ton of questions again and told us it was a Febrile Seizure, or in other words, a seizure related to a spike in fever, the same type I had as a child. He said they could have one they could have eight you just never know. So from now on we have to monitor his temp very closely. The trick is prevention, starting Tylenol/ IB Profen rotation at a low grade fever and as quickly as possible. The nurses were great, everyone was wonderful that saw us. One of the nurses even gave him two animals to play with that he got to take home with him! After 4 hours in the ER they finally got the fever down and were able to discharge us. They gave us literature on Febrile Seizures and assured us that this particular type is most common, can happen between the ages 6 mo-6yrs, and are NOT harmful. We went home and Cash came back to life a little he was playing and acting normal, just had some balance issues. He slept all night, from 10:30 p.m until 8:00 a.m., even slept through two doses of medicine. I, however, did not sleep a wink. I just stared at him all night. My precious baby. I would do anything in the world to not ever see anything like that seizure again. Cash is doing great now, still running a low-moderate fever at times, but I am still rotating medicine every 3 hours. Please pray for him and our family as we take a new direction in our lives. Please pray to help us deal with our situation in the best way we can, and that Cash will not have anymore of these, or if he does that he will be safe and healthy. I appreciate all the drs and nurses at Children's for being so supportive, kind, and helpful, and to all of our friends that knew that reached out to us to let us know they would do anything to help us out if needed. I really appreciate your kind words, thoughts, and prayers.

Starting to perk up at ER...

His animals and tag from the hospital...When we got home this is what he was doing, thank God his was acting more normal...

These were the marks from the monitors he was hooked up to....

Please keep our family in your prayers.

Love,

Craigan, Jessica, and Cash