Sick Little Theo

Barely awake to watch a show

Last week I had one of my scariest moments as a mom.  I had had a mild cold for a few days, really just a runny nose and on Monday Theo woke up with a low fever (99 degrees) and just seemed tired, so we spent most of the day snuggling.  It worked out well for me since I had been under the weather too, although I had thought about going grocery shopping in town.  Anyways, after his nap his temperature had gone up to 102 degrees.  In the past Theo's actually had higher temps-which I had as a child-but he had no other symptoms.  I decided that this time I would not medicate him since a fever is usually fighting an infection and I thought I would let it take its course. 

This is no fun- ma

When Mason got home later in the evening, we decided to run to town to pick-up some dinner since we didn't have much food in the house and we all needed a bit of fresh air.  We drove around for a bit before deciding what to get, and we ended up picking  up some food from an Irish pub we hadn't tried yet.  We waited for the food and then decided to take it home.  While we were waiting Theo was really good, snuggly and playing with his cookie monster toy.  

After about 5 minutes of being in the car on the way home, we heard a noise from him in the back seat, it sounded like he was just moving his legs in the car seat getting more comfortable but Mason looked back and saw he was shaking.  It turned out that he was having a seizure.  It was so scary!  I hopped in the back with him, and just kept talking to him, while panicking what to do.  I've decided I am not calm during family medical emergencies.  Mason quickly turned the car around, and thankfully we were about 5 minutes from the hospital.  We took Theo to the ER.  By this time his seizure had stopped and he was just crying/whimpering and falling asleep.

Little sickie watching Sesame Street

We were seen fairly quickly by a nurse.  Although by the time Mason had parked the car and gotten back to us (about 3 minutes) I think I was crying way more than Theo.  Mom guilt for not medicating and just being terrified about what was wrong with my baby.  After an initial screening, we were taken to a private room where the doctor came and did an evaluation.  At this point, Theo's fever was still 102.2 degrees.  The doctor determined the high fever caused a febrile seizure which can be common in small children.

We stayed at the hospital from about 8:45-midnight.  The gave Theo Motrin and later Tylenol to bring down the fever.  By midnight we were all just ready to go home.  The nurse was really sweet and brought a little toy bear for Theo and some juice, even though he didn't take it.  Theo was a trooper!  We snuggled for awhile, and Mason took some turns.  When he woke up a little bit, I let him play on my phone which he liked, but once his fever started dropping he just kept saying "bye bye".  It was really sad and pitiful.

Sad mommy and Theo at the hospital

Theo slept in really late (until about 11am) on Tuesday, I was monitoring the video monitor quite a bit throughout the night and in the morning.  His fever had gone back up, but I had to get some medicine for him.  Mason had to work on Tuesday, so I took Theo with me to the BX and we loaded up on infant medicine and Kleenex.  I took him to the commissary too, to grab some juice and bananas.  Being the sick mommy I was, I had let the house be banana free for 3 whole days- shame!  Theo kept asking for them, but of course wouldn't eat them for days.  He ended up taking a long nap, and I monitored his temperature all day.  It kept bouncing between 101-103 degrees.  Fortunately, no more seizures.

I had called the base pediatricians to follow up about what had been going on and they were really sweet and helpful.  I was glad that I could call them.His fever broke by Wednesday, and still no more cold signs, he was still pretty pitiful, but slowly showing signs that he was getting better.  By Friday, he was bouncing in his bed when I went to wake him up in the morning, so I had a feeling he was on the mend!

He's doing perfectly well now- thankfully!  And for the future, we'll medicate him even with a low grade fever to lessen the chance of him having another seizure.

By Friday he was back to being my sweet little shopping helper!