Nightmare

Yesterday was "Daddy Day", so Jonathan spent the day with Darin while I was at work.  Apparently, he had a low-grade fever in the morning, so it was treated with Ibuprofen around 8 am.  His next dose was about 6 hours later, and he still had a fever.  When I got home, I found Jonathan sleeping in Darin's arms on the couch.  Darin informed me that Jonathan was running a fever, and it seemed to be getting worse.  I was not very worried, as he's little and gets little colds here and there a lot.  I called his doctor's office, but couldn't get through.  I waited on hold for a while, and then hung up and tried again later, to no avail.

We decided to take Jonathan to urgent care because his fever reached 105.4 and his heart was racing.  We loaded him up in the car and weren't even a half mile down our street when Jonathan started having a seizure.  His lips turned bluish-purple, his eyes rolled back in his head, his head flopped to the side, and he started drooling.  By this time, Darin had stopped the car in the middle of our street and I was unbuckling Jonathan from his car seat.  Darin ran to a neighbor's house to get someone to call 911, while I ran towards a car driving down the street to get help.  By the grace of God, because there are no coincidences, a woman (in the medical field) answered her door and called 911 immediately.  We ran inside her house and she let us lay him on the couch.  Another neighbor, a nurse, ran inside and helped us get him out of his clothes and roll him on his side, as directed by the 911 operator.  She also checked his pulse and made sure he was breathing.  Thankfully, by this time, he was no longer seizing, and was sound asleep.  (Apparently, seizures take a lot out of people.)  Another neighbor arrived (a friend from church), and she called my sister for us, who then started the phone tree.  Once the fire engine arrived, the sweet nurse waved good-bye and we never saw her again.  His oxygen level and heart rate were checked.  His heartbeat was about 134 bpm.  Once the paramedics arrived, the decision was made to take him by ambulance to the hospital so that the doctors could check him out.  I rode with Jonathan, and Darin drove our car.

Jonathan slept through much of the ride.  He did look at me a few times, and he scowled at the paramedic when he called his name.  His heartbeat climbed from 160 when we got into the ambulance to 173 bpm en route to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, Jonathan was pretty out of it, but very calm.  He just wanted to be held.  His temperature was still over 105, so he was given Tylenol.  The doctors and nurses were great, and they explained that because of the sudden spike in his fever, he had what is known as a Febrile Seizure.  You can read more about that here.)  We were there for a little over four hours.  Jonathan slept some of the time, and watched a little television.  He didn't say a word until "Bob the Builder" was mentioned.  When he heard that, he said he wanted to go "upstairs" at Grandma Thomas' to watch it.  We were surrounded by many loved ones, which made this nightmare a little more bearable.  By the time we left the hospital, Jonathan's temperature was down to 99 - success!

Jonathan slept in our bed last night, and he was pretty jumpy.  At one point, he sang, "Ruby, Ruby.  Baby, Baby," but his eyes were closed and he went right back to sleep.  Around 3:30 this morning he woke up singing Peter Frampton's "How Do You Feel?" and "Show Me the Way."  He was in much better spirits!  He looked around in the bed for his Clifford dog, but couldn't find it.  When I gave it to him, he looked at Darin and said, "You take my 'Cwifford'?  You stinker butt!"  Darin and I were thrilled to see that our little guy had his sense of humor back!  Jonathan stayed awake talking and singing for about an hour, and then went back to sleep until around 7 am, and his fever was back.

 Fast asleep in the papasan chair with "Lil' Puppy" close by.

We made a follow-up appointment with Jonathan's pediatrician, and took him in around 10:30.  His fever had climbed to 105.6, and his heart was racing again.  He wouldn't take his medicine because he thought that's what made him go to the hospital.  (Earlier conversation:  "Jonathan, did you go to the hospital?"  "Yes, I see fire engine."  "You're right, buddy.  Did you see an ambulance, too?"  "Yes."  "Why did you go to the hospital?"  "'Cause Daddy gave me medicine.").  In his mind, medicine was "bad", so he got worked up when taking medicine and threw up each time.

He fell asleep in our arms at the doctor's office, and his temperature went down to 103.4.  His heartbeat also slowed down to 124 bpm, so he was improving and we were relieved!  His doctor thinks that he has Roseola (read more about that here), and that he should be fever-free tomorrow evening.

Much of the day was spent watching "The Land Before Time" (two times), "Boz", "VeggieTales", and YouTube videos of Peter Frampton and Heart.  He was not interested in playing until late this evening, but it took a lot out of him.  We read a few books and then he decided to put himself to bed.  He was still awake when my dad arrived, so he got up and ate half of a pretzel (Grandpa's special pretzels from the meat store!) and a small piece of cheese.  He started falling asleep, so we put him back to bed and he went right to sleep.

 Watching "The Land Before Time" while Daddy was sleeping with Daddy.

Thanks for all of the prayers - we felt them!  God's hand was in this, putting key people in the right place at the right time.  We are so grateful that our little guy is feeling better.  We're still reliving the nightmare in our minds, and it's very difficult to talk about right now.