UPDATE:
Mason is still sick, it seems to be worse at night. Go figure. Yesterday he had a pretty go day, he was fine until the medicine would start to ware off and the fever would come back. But last night was rough. I put him to bed at 8pm with no fever, he was up at 9:30 with a fever. I gave him some medicine, and then we sat in the living room until midnight. He cried, moaned, and was very lethargic. He did drink some juice, but was uncomfortable. He kept saying "ow ow ow", we can't figure out what hurts though. Finally around midnight the fever broke and he fell asleep and slept all night. This morning he woke, I gave him some more medicine and he has been playing ever since. Today is day 3 with a fever so I am hoping this is all gone soon. Please keep praying that this passes quickly, and that the worst is behind us.
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As I mentioned before when the kids get sick I panic, especially fevers. Both Timothy and Mason have had a febrile seizure, and while they are said to be harmless they are incredibly scary to watch. This is even more sore if it is your child.
Timothy was 22 months old when he had his. It was a few weeks before Christmas. That morning we had plans to meet a playgroup, he woke up a little crabby but I didn't think he was sick. So we went to our play date, and when we left I could tell he was not feeling well. Once we got home I took his temp and he was running a fever, so I gave him some Tylenol.
The day was like any other day with a sick child. Rest, medicine, cuddles. By the evening I had run out of Tylenol. I was not going to leave to go out and get any, and Tim said that Timothy was fine and wasn't running a fever and so he didn't go out and give him any.
I remember that Tim was sitting on the floor playing a computer game, I was sitting on the couch, and Timothy was sitting next to me. We gave him a Popsicle, and some water. Then he fell asleep. A short while later he woke up crying, he was bright red and felt warm. I gave him his water, and then I remember Tim saying look at his hand, it doing something weird.
I looked over and realized he was having a seizure. His eyes rolled back in his head, he stiffened out and began to shake violently. Without thinking I instantly laid him down on the couch and I was holding him. He was shaking so bad in my arms. I was talking to him, "Mommy and daddy are here" "It's going to be OK" "Timothy can you hear me". He was not responding. Tim was already calling 911. They said to just keep talking to him, and that the paramedics were on the way.
He began to turn blue, and started to spit up. And then he stopped an his body kind of just had a rhythmic shake to it. He was moaning and crying, but still not responding. While the actual seizure only lasted minutes, it felt like an hour. I thought it was never going to stop. I thought my son was going to die. I kept thinking, my son is going to die because of a fever that I could have prevented had I went to the store and got some more medicine.
Once the paramedics arrived, he had "woken up". He was still crying but he was responding. They took his temperature and he did not have one. Once they checked up over they concluded he suffered a febrile seizure. They explained that they are fairly common, and that normal ones are harmless. They explained that it is caused when there is a rapid change in body temperature, rising or failing. That it has nothing to do with how high the temperature gets because it can happen with a temp of 100. It has to do with the rapid rise or decrease in temp. They concluded that his temperature probably rose in minutes, and the body's way to deal with it was to have a seizure which caused his temperature to drop and stabilize.
We were told to put him in a cool bath, and go get some medicine. They also said to avoid doing anything that will cause him to shiver because that will cause his body temp to rise.
This was an hour or two before the seizure.I could not get that night out of my head for day's. It was one of the scariest things I had been through. Thankfully he has never had another one. But unfortunately Mason has. They said that if one sibling had one then the other siblings are more likely to have one. Which is why I get so paranoid.
Today he is perfectly fine, I see no effects from the seizure. He is smart, happy, and pretty healthy. I pray that he NEVER has another one.
