So this weekend we had planned a fun family trip to the cape, with nature walks, shopping, museums, and good food. We were going to leave Thurs and come back Sunday.
Thursday, L got sent home from daycare with a fever. We called the pediatrician and they told us not to worry, just to give him Tylenol and that we could still go on our trip. We delayed a day to see how things were going, and on Friday, L’s fever seemed a little lower and he just seemed sleepier, so we decided to go for it.
We got to the cape late afternoon, and had a nice afternoon tea, then walked around Heritage Museums and Gardens while L mostly slept or looked around at the scenery. We arrived at our B&B and went out for a walk around the neighborhood because L seemed happier in motion. On the way back, though, L threw up. We took him to the room and got him cleaned up, comforted, and put down to sleep. It was around 6pm. B left us in the room while he went out for some supplies and to get us takeout dinner.
L woke up while B was out, and I picked him up for a cuddle, but something seemed off. Then I noticed one of his hands was clenching and unclenching very quickly, in a weird way. I laid him on the bed and he didn’t cry, which was weird. His eyes looked up and to the side, and he wouldn't look at me. Then his whole arm started spasming, and he became totally nonresponsive. He started drooling out of the corner of his mouth, and his lips got a little blue.
I thought he was about to die.
Somewhere in the middle of this series of events I called B quickly to tell him to come back, and I called 911.
During the 8 minute 911 call, L started coming out of it. He whined and moved a little and kept looking like he was passing out, which I later learned is normal post-seizure sleepiness. I knew he was actually getting better when, while I was still on the phone with the dispatcher, he reached for his pacifier and tried to put it in his mouth, and I started tearing up with relief.
EMTs arrived around when B came back. They noted that L was tracking them around the room and they seemed spectacularly unconcerned — febrile seizure, they said. It's no big deal. You can take him in, or we can.
We took him to Cape Cod hospital. L was seen fairly quickly, but between all the various doctors and consults and exams, we were there for about three hours. For a couple hours after the seizure, L wouldn’t use the hand that had seized, but that got better by the time we left. They told us it seemed like benign febrile seizure, but that the one-sidedness was unusual and made it a little more concerning, so even though it was probably just fine, we need a pediatric neurology follow up.
We came back home the next day (Saturday), and after a fight to keep his fever down, L started to get better that night and seem more like his usual self yesterday. As the doctors predicted, a while after the fevers stopped, he got a rash. He’s grumpy now but mostly back to himself, and hasn't been feverish since around 5-6pm Saturday night. This morning his pediatrician pronounced him well enough to go back to school.
I’ve been shaken up and upset to varying degrees since the seizure. I know we've been reassured that L is overwhelmingly likely to be just fine. It was just an extremely hard thing to see and experience. I think I am still working through it.
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