ER

What a day it's been. As I sit here, I'm just taking a big sigh of relief. My baby girl is sick. Ella has had a low-grade fever off and on for the past 4-5 days. I didn't really think too much of it honestly. She's had a bad diaper rash too, so I just figured she was fighting a bug and let it go at that. But last night she took a turn for the worse.

She woke up around 2:30am and was burning up. I fed her a bottle and when she was done, she just lay in my arms and cried. Then she starting adding this strange grunting sound with it and started shaking too. Her temp was up but we couldn't get a good read on the thermometer. The best I could figure was that her temp was around 100 degrees. A dose of tylenol and lots of holding and bouncing later, and she finally fell back asleep around 3:45 am. When she woke up around 7, she seemed a lot better. Gave her some more tylenol at 11, but also made an appointment for her to see the doctor. I figured something was up.

Her appointment was a 3pm, and of course her fever had broken by then and she was acting totally normal. We found out that she had a mild ear infection and got a prescription for an anti-biotic. So off I went to Target, shlepping both kids in the cart, to get the medicine. Praise the Lord for generic medication! We are uninsured right now and I'm always worried about these things. I only had to pay $7.95!!!

Well, while we were in Target, Ella started her crying/shaking/grunting thing again. I could tell she wanted to be held and she was burning up. Mind you, this was only 30 minutes after I left the doctor's office, where her temp was only 97.9! She cried the entire time I was in Target, and as a side note-why do I always end up in the slowest line with 50 million price checks when I have a screaming baby? Go figure.

We made it home by about 4:15 and Ella was almost asleep in the car. I started to carry her in when the strangest thing happened. All of a sudden she threw her head back and started staring at the sky. I called her name, but no response. I ran into the house and kept trying to get her to make eye contact with me. She just kept staring up at the ceiling. Her eyes were kind of glassy and her breathing was really shallow. At some points I couldn't even tell if she was breathing or not. Then I heard clicking noises coming from her throat and it seemed like stuff was coming up. This went on for eternity (ok, only a few minutes.) Meanwhile, I called the doctor. I was hysterical! I could hardly explain what was going on and they just told me to go to the ER or call 911. And I'm thinking, there's no way I'm putting her in a car seat and driving with the two kids to the ER, all the while hoping that she doesn't stop breathing!

Well, she finally snapped out of it and was really calm and easy going for a few minutes. I managed to take her temp and it was 102.5. I tried calling the doctor back (not even 5 minutes later) and they had closed early for the holiday weekend!!!!! UGGGHH! I was so frustrated. Needless to say, I spent the next two hours trying to get ahold of someone to find out if I still needed to go to the ER. I suspected that she had had a febrile seizure.

Well, you guessed it. When I finally got ahold of someone, they told me to go to the ER. So off we went. By this time, Ella had been screaming for 2 hours and had finally fallen asleep. I had to wake her up to go and wouldn't you know, her fever had broken. It was 97 degrees at the hospital! AAHH! I was worried they would think I was a nutcase. But after listening to me, they determined that she did have a seizure and they gave her some hefty doses of antibiotics. She does have a mild ear infection, but otherwise seems totally healthy.

So we are back home and both girls are asleep. I'm praying that she doesn't have any more seizures because if she does, we have to go back to the ER for a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. I am quite sure that would be a most unpleasant experience for all involved! I'm just thankful that she is ok for now and we'll just have to pray that God will continue to protect her in the days to come.