Our Little Angel gave us a BIG SCARE

On Saturday night, Kiley woke up in the middle of the night burning up. I took her temperature and it was 104. I quickly got online to do some research on what may have caused this. I read from numerous people that their children had spikes in their fever while they were teething. It made perfect sense because Kiley is working on her second tooth. On Sunday morning, she still felt a little warm, but by the time she woke up from her afternoon nap her temperature was back to normal. She was a little warm again when we put her to bed Sunday night, so I figured I would call the doctor in the morning.

A little before 2am, Kiley woke up screaming. I picked her up and she was burning up. Once I held her to me, she convulsed about 4 times and then stopped. I ran to wake Mikey up. We turned on the light and he took her and as soon as we saw her face, we knew something wasn't right. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't responding. I ran and got dressed. I remember looking at the clock when I went into the bedroom and it was exactly 2am. I went and got her from Mikey while he dressed. I grabbed a few things and jumped in the car. We rushed Kiley to Medical City. Mikey dropped us off at the ER. I ran in with her and told the guy at the desk what happened. We were immediately rushed to the back where they began to work on her. Little did I know, that Mikey's nightmare was getting worse. He parked the car and came into the ER. At this point there was a female at the desk. He said he had just dropped us off and she said that noone had been there. He explained that he just dropped us off 2 minutes prior and she proceeded to rudely tell him that he was mistaken. He turned around to leave when she finally decided to "call someone". Sure enough, we were in the back and she was mistaken.

The next few minutes are quite a blur. The people at the nurse's station were asking me questions while the people working on Kiley were asking me questions. They were in Emergency Mode trying to get her fever down and to get her out of the seizure. Mikey and I were living our worst nightmare. Our poor baby girl was not responding to us. I will never forget the look on her poor little face. Her fever was 103.9. I stood by her side while they stripped her down and put a wet towel over her. They were having a hard time finding a vein for her IV. There were 4 of them, pricking her in her arms, hands and feet all trying to get a line. It was so hard to watch. After about 15 minutes of this (and over 30 tries), they finally got a line. My poor baby is bruised all up and down her arms and hands and on her feet. After the seizure stopped, she was still "posturing". Her entire body was stiff. They explained that she was experiencing a Febrile Seizure which is actually very common, BUT (yes, there was a but)the normal ones only last about 30 seconds and Kiley's lasted over 15 minutes. They were also concerned about how long it took her to come out of it. Once the IV was in, they gave her a baby equivalent to valium and the tests began. Since we did not know what the source of the fever was, over the next hour, they took multiple blood cultures, a urine sample via catheter, a cat scan, a chest xray and a spinal tap.

We spent the next hour or so waiting for all of the results. They quickly ruled out an ear infection and they said the initial look at the catscan looked normal. We had to wait over an hour to get the results of the spinal tap. I was so nervous that it would be menangitis. She had no symptoms leading up to this. No runny nose, cough, congestion, nothing. This fever came out of nowhere. Around 4am, they finally ruled out menangitis and I was relieved, but still uneasy because we did not have a cause. We tried to get a little rest while Kiley was sleeping. Her medicine was supposed to last 5 hours, but they came in around 6am to put her on an antibiotic and she woke up. She was not happy. Mikey called our parents while I tried to calm Kiley down. Of course we ran out without her Juicy, so Mikey ran to the house to grab a few things we needed. His parents are still in Florida, so we promised to keep them posted once we knew more. My parents arrived at the hospital around 7ish. Right after they walked in, Dr. Nale came to see Kiley. He explained that it isn't just the fever that caused the seizure, there are certain types of viruses that cause the fever that cause the seizure. So a kid can have a fever higher than Kiley's and not have a seizure. It is the combination of the two. He said that since Kiley's seizure lasted so long and we still didn't know the cause that he wanted to admit Kiley to the hospital to wait until the rest of the test results came in.

We finally got up to our room 629 in the D Building around 10am. The nurse pushed Kiley in her crib all the way. She looked so sweet in the big crib just looking at the lights in the hallways and elevator. We spent the day waiting to find out how long we would need to stay. By this time, Kiley's fever was down to 101. All day, she was very out of it from the seizure and the drugs. It was so hard seeing her like that. She was real shaky and very fussy. She had an IV for all of her fluids and nutrients she needed. I ordered her some mashed potatos and applesauce for lunch and she ate them both. It was good to see that she still had an appetite. Mikey went to the house to take a shower and get me some things to take a shower and Kiley some toys. She was very glad to see her laptop =). She slept on and off most of the day.

She had 5 different wires coming off of her. She had the IV in her right hand, a wire monitoring her heart, her oxygen intake and her respitory activity all stuck on her chest and tummy, and she had a wire attached to her big tow monitoring her pulse.

Her poor IV. They had it all taped up to a big board so that she couldn't get it loose. She sure tired multiple times.

Dr. Nale came in before he left for the day to tell us that they still hadn't found a cause for the fever and that he would like her to be monitored over night. So, Dad & Mycah picked up dinner and we had a family dinner in Kiley's hospital room. She had some mac n cheese, mashed potatos and more applesauce. Everyone left around 830pm and the 3 of us were in bed by 845pm. The nurse came to check her vitals around 9pm and was supposed to give her tylenol but she was already asleep and I did not wake her. Her temperature was under 100 so they said it was ok. They came to check her vitals and temperature again at 1am and then 5 am. She woke up at 5am and started to seem more like the old Kiley. I fed her a little bit of fruit and then she fell back asleep from 6am - 8am. It felt so good for all of us to get some rest.

Whens he woke up this time, she was looking even more like herself. She was back to work on her laptop.

Mikey left for a meeting around 8am and Marmee came back to stay with us around 830am. Dr. Nale came in shortly after and said that since her fever had stayed under 100 all night, she was free to go home. He told us that all bacterial infections had been ruled out and that it was a viral infection that caused the fever. He told us that we did everything right. There is no way of predicting whether a child is going to have a febrile seizure. Unfortunately she will be more suseptible to these seizures over the next few years, so we will always be concerned when she gets a high fever. While we were waiting to get discharged, the Catholic Chaplain came into our room and gave me communion and gave Kiley a rosary. It was so sweet.

Marmee brought us home and Daddie had my Kiley a Welcom Home sign. It was so sweet. He wrote it with blue highlighter, so you have to look very close.

I love those kisses.

We are so thankful to God that he answered our prayers and that our little baby is ok.