Seizure Scare

Collin is ok now, but we did experience quite a scare Saturday evening (Oct. 1). Apparently when a child (0-5 yrs) spikes a fever too high too quickly a seizure can occur. The seizure, although horrific to see, is benign and has no known long-term ill effects. Unfortunately for Collin, he had two Saturday. Unfortunately for us, we'd never heard of "febrile seizures" nor ever seen a seizure ~ we thought he was dying before our eyes. Thankfully, he is very much ok now.

The short story is this: Saturday, Collin spent the day as a normal 13 month old boy, playing and laughing and romping around. At 4:30 pm, he found a pillow on the floor and cuddled in for a nap. He had never done that before, and we thought it was adorable - even took pictures. 45 minutes later he awoke with a very high temperature. We gave him Tylenol, and Kevin was looking up the on-call nurses' number in the phonebook when suddenly Collin's whole body started convulsing. His neck kicked back and his eyes rolled back into his head. His lips turned blue; he became stiff as a board; he started frothing at the mouth. Kevin called 9-1-1 while I yelled at the top of my lungs for a doctor in the neighborhood. Luckily, aid arrived within minutes and a neighbor was able to assure us that this was rare but normal given the fever onset. The seizure lasted 30-40 seconds; it took Collin 45-60 minutes to really come around. I have never experienced something more powerful or terrifying in my life. We were sent home from the ER at 8:30 pm with prescriptions for a left ear infection and super-strength ibuprofen. At 10:30 pm we took his temperature, and it was an ok 100. He then vomited all over our bed. Kevin went to call the nurse again, and I cleaned Collin up. He then ran a fever of 101. He started twitching. The nurse called back, and Collin immediately had another seizure. It lasted one full minute. We called 9-1-1 again, and he took his second trip to the hospital in an ambulance with a temp of 103.7. That time the ER doc said he had a right ear infection and possibly menengitis, so he wanted to perform a spinal tap. We demanded, much to their dismay, a second opinion from a pediatrician. Thank goodness we did. Turns out, he does NOT have menengitis, did NOT have an ear infection in either ear, and simply had some other unknown virus that has since cleared. We were admitted to the pediatric ward around 2 am Sunday morning. Collin's fever broke around 10:30 am, and he has not spiked again since. According to our pediatrician, he has a 50 percent chance of ever having another febrile seizure; if he makes it two years, then that chance decreases to about 30 percent. Once he turns 6 years old, we're out of the woods. At any rate, as I said, they are benign, although very scary, and they simply need to be handled with care to protect him as he convulses. He does not have a seizure epidemic and he is not necessarily prone to them either. With any luck, he'll never have one again. We are just so grateful to have him with us, safe and sound. PLEASE kiss your babies for us!!