Yesterday, Owen woke up with a fever and ran one all day long. It ranged from 99 to 103 and we could tell that he did not feel well. It wasn't like he was extremely sick...he drank juice, milk and water...ate some scrambled eggs...he just seemed like he wanted to lounge around for most of the day.
About 5:00PM, I was in the kitchen, Jen was in the den and Owen headed into Nate's room to watch SpongeBob. Shortly thereafter, Jen heard a sound that just didn't seem quite right so she went to check on him. When she walked into the room, she found him on the floor by his chair having convulsions. She screamed for me to call 911 then picked him up and carried him out to the den.
Our immediate thought was that he was choking. I tried to get my finger into his mouth to clear out anything that might be in there but his teeth/jaw was clenched shut. He was breathing loudly so I put my ear to his chest and heard his heartbeat. I then realized that he was having some sort of seizure.
Jen was on the phone with 911 and we could hear the sirens from the Bixby Fire department heading our way. I just kept talking to him and checking to make sure he was still breathing and had a heartbeat. I had Jen get a couple of ice packs out of the freezer and I put them on his face, torso and arms to try to stimulate him.
A few minutes later, the Fire department arrived and got O2 going on him. The Captain and the EMT helped me with him and he started to come around slightly. The O2 mask on his face irritated him and he started to fuss, which was a good sign. EMSA arrived about 4 or 5 minutes later and began checking him out as well. Once he was stabilized, we took him to the ER at St. Francis. On the ride over, he pretty much just stared out the window and looked around at the inside of the ambulance.
The paramedic said that it sounded like a febrile seizure, which is a fever induced seizure. Jen notified the pediatric cardiologist on call for Dr. Lundt and he told her the same thing. Once we got to the ER, he slowly returned to his normal self...he wanted to be held by either me or Jen and he wanted to go home NOW. All of the tests (blood work & EKG) were normal so the conclusion was that he did, in fact, have a febrile seizure. The theory is that his fever spiked (his last dose of ibuprofen was at 12:30PM and he was just about due for a dose of Children's Tylenol) and this is how is body reacted. The ER doc gave him an IV antibiotic in case he does have an infection that is causing his white blood cell count to be up. If it's viral, there is nothing that we can do except to try to keep his fever down with Ibuprofen & Tylenol as it runs it's course.
Owen slept pretty good last night even though we had to wake him at 3AM for his dose of Ibuprofen. Today he has been doing pretty good...he is still running a low grade fever and doesn't really want to eat much. He does want to play and has been alternating between me and Jen as his "playmates"!
Needless to say, the whole episode scared the hell out of me & Jen. Our biggest fear is that something will happen to Owen and that was the first thing that popped into our minds. With Nate, we always knew what to do and how to do it when an emergency situation arose. This time, it was scary because we didn't know what to do right at the first. There is a 10% chance that he could have another febrile seizure but they are NOT life threatening and do NOT cause brain damage. They usually last about 15 minutes and that was pretty much the timeframe of his episode. Going forward, we'll have to keep his fevers under control and we hope & pray that we never see him like that again!
Please keep Owen in your prayers and we'll keep you updated on how he's doing...
Thanks,
Trey
