Fevers, Seizures, and Spinal Taps

To say Coleman had a "Big Weekend" would be an understatement! He is home and pretty happy now but I think it will be a little while until he is back to his old self again. Here's the story:
Friday: Coleman wasn't acting like himself. He was very tired and would fall asleep on the floor or as soon as we picked him up he would lay his head down and fall asleep (very un-Coleman-like). We knew he wasn't feeling well and he felt a little warm, so we checked his temperature... 101*. We called the Dr. who told us, "Don't worry until the fever reaches 104*, just give him Tylenol." We gave him Tylenol and he went to bed.

Saturday: When I came home from work at 2:30pm he still wasn't feeling well and seemed to be hotter. I checked his temp. 103* He had just woken up from a nap, so I thought that maybe he was warmer because he was in heavy pajamas and a thick blanket. An hour and a half later I checked it again and it was still 103* so I called the Dr. and made an appointment for Coleman to be seen 2 hours later. The Dr. checked Coleman for ear infections, listened to his chest, and looked in his mouth. He concluded that it was just a viral infection and told me not to worry and to take him home. I told the Dr. that Coleman had been on medicine for 24 hours and wasn't improving, infact he was getting worse and he had absolutely no interest in eating. The Dr. brushed it off and said, "Sometimes when you don't feel good, you lose your appetite." He sent us home. The Dr's office is on Bulldog Ave in Provo. Coleman and I left and as we were driving up State Street (not more than 5 minutes later) I look back and Coleman was having a SEIZURE! I called the office back and said, "I was just in there with my son and we were sent home and now I think he is having a seizure!" The nurse told me to turn around and head to the nearest E.R. (Utah Valley Regional Medical Center). He was awake but unresponsive for the next 5-10 minutes until we got to the hospital. I pulled into the ER and ran into the waiting room (like a crazy mother) and a Dr. came out to the car to get Coleman. He took him out of his car seat and Coleman just sort of flopped there. It wasn't until they had him on the table that he snapped out of it. Another Dr. came in and asked me what had happened. I explained to him what happened and why I thought it was a seizure. He told me that was a textbook seizure (which in a weird way made me feel good, at least I wasn't crazy) and that they were going to give Coleman a Spinal Tap to check his spinal fluid for Spiral Meningitis. Coleman fought them pretty hard, so they decided to sedate him. They tried every arm and foot to get an IV in him, but he was so dehydrated that all his veins collapsed and they had to call a specialist from pediatrics to come and do it. (All this time Josh wasn't there because he had gone the the BYU game. I called him as soon as we got to the ER and he drove down as quickly as he could) They finally had him sedated and they did a Spinal Tap, CT Scan, Chest X-Ray, and a ton of blood work. They needed to test his urine but unfortunately he was so dehydrated they when they tried the catheter they couldn't get anything. They had to give him 2 doses of fluid before he finally peed. Coleman finally fell asleep while we were waiting for the results of his urine tests. He sleeps best on his stomach and was gracious enough the give the nurses easy access to read his temperature :)

We were in the E.R. for about 5 hours and thankfully everything came back clear. The ER Dr. told us Coleman had a FEBRILE SEIZURE, a seizure caused by high fevers. For the next 36 hours we had to wake him up every 3 hours to give him medicine and check to see how how his pupils were dilating and how responsive he was. It was a VERY long night.

Sunday: Coleman's fever was down, he was just very grouchy... but really, who can blame him? We had made a follow-up appointment at the Dr's office and when we got there, more bad news. Unfortunately all this happened on the weekend so even though we met with 4 different Dr.s (2 ER and 2 pediatricians) none of them were Coleman's regular Doctor. This Dr. kept coming up with new possibilities and would suggest tests that we already done. He would get me freaked out that it was something neurological and suggest a CT Scan. After I told him the CT Scan was performed and came back fine, he would say, "Oh, never mind then." It was very comforting :( He checked everything out and said the same thing as all the rest of them, It was a Febrile Seizure caused by high fever brought on by a viral infection. He asked if I had any other concerns and I told him that I thought Coleman was unusually pale. He agreed and ordered his nurse to do a test for anemia. The average 11 month-old should fall between the 34-38 point range and Coleman's came back at 25. He called the Hospital and found out that Coleman had dropped 7 points over night. He sent us back to the Hospital for more blood tests. Poor Coleman, the very nice lady came to take his blood and he just looked up at Josh like, "Really? They are going to do more of this?" It was heart-breaking. I also think that it was harder on Josh than it was on Coleman, but I don't think Josh would admit that. The Dr. called us 2 hours later and thankfully everything was fine. Coleman was back up to within normal range and there was nothing new to worry about.

We have now past the 32 hour mark and things are looking up. Coleman has been walking around and playing with his toys (2 things he had no interest in doing the past 2 days). His color is back and he is smiling again. He still feels a little out-of-it but he is over-all a lot better.

Children with FEBRILE SEIZURES have a 35% chance of repeating. They usually grow out of it by the time they are 5-7 years old. We have to be very aggressive next time he has a fever, waking him up every 3 hours for medicine, and should he seize again, we will have to take him back to the ER. The Dr. estimated that 90% of child who have Febrile Seizures grow out of them and don't have any seizure-related problems as adults.

We are so thankful to be home with him now and although it was a very scary weekend we are grateful it wasn't worse.