Kids give you gray hair

March 9, 2010
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

Since Thursday night, Blake's had one of those low-grade fever at night, croupy cough virus thingies that tend to plague us during the winter. This translates to little sleep at night, followed by a strangely energetic kid during the day chasing not-so-energetic parents.

After this went on for a few days, I called up the doctor on Monday to ask if we should bring him in. No high fever, and not all the time, but still. They said to bring him in right away so he could be checked out. (My doctor's office is usually great about seeing kids quickly.) When Blake got home from our sitter's he was not his normal self (i.e. bouncing off the walls). He laid down on the couch so I took his temp and yes, yet another low-grade fever. So I poured some Tylenol into him and we piled into the van for the doctor's office.

I was mostly worried about his coughing as he's had pneumonia twice -- once a winter until now, and he was due. But the doctor, wearing a huge set of eye goggles and face mask...presumably to not catch Blake germs) checked his lungs and couldn't hear any of the "crackling" that pneumonia exhibits. His ears were OK...one was a touch red but no need for antibiotics. But, we did get a prescription for a puffer to help him with the coughing. I opted for a chest xray though, so we whirled out of the office and over to the Xray place to make it before they closed at 6:00.

Blake was feeling pretty bad by this time, and he still had a low-grade fever, even with the Tylenol. So, we got the xray, complete with this cute little bib to protect his manly bits. I called up George and he met us at the xray place so he could get the prescription and I could take the kids home.

I swung into Wendys for some takeout fries as it was after 6:00 at this point, and we headed home. That's when things got a little crazy.

We were about 5 minutes from home when I heard Blake make this strange breathing sound. I looked back, figuring he was choking, but instead found him in a seizure. FREAK. I pulled over and ran around to his side of the van. His seizure had stopped by this point but he was as ghost white and semi-conscious - no resonse, just some eye flutters, Shallow-breathing. Small puke. FREAK. Faith grabbed my cell phone for me and I dialed 911. I knew it was likely a febrile seizure as he'd had one when he was a year old, but FREAK.

I calmly (!) talked to the dispatcher and told her where we were, what was happening, etc. and about 5 minutes later, thankfully, a paramedic was with us. Then, the ambulance showed up. At this point I called George, and all my calmness distintegrated. Do you know how hard it is to give directions when you're balling?

Anyway, we all loaded up into the ambulance, and George actually found us in time to follow us to the hospital. Blake was very groggy and kind of "drunken". Faith got to ride in the back with us too, strapped into an extra seat, and "helped" the very nice attendant named Laura. She was worried about her brother, but soaking in the new experience at the same time.

They whooshed us into the back of the ER and we sat next to a couple of police officers with a parole violator on crutches. Everybody looked fairly relaxed so I decided not to get too worried about the possible convict next to my 2 kids. The cop even took the convict dude's chair and gave it to Faith!

We got a room quickly, and they sent us for another (!) chest xray. The irony of working for a company that provides the technology that would have made it possible for the hospital to see the xray we'd taken about 3 hours before was not lost on me. Kind of ticked me off actually. The very nice ER doc (a stretched out version of the red-haired doc on Grey's Anatomy) told us no pneumonia but he took a look at Blake's ears again and decided they were red enough that he could give an antibiotic. He was looking for an excuse and I was happy he found it. I mean, if your kid has a seizure and they only send you home with advice that you're underdosing him on Tylenol, would have been a little scary. I've never been happier to get a scrip for antibiotics. (BTW, I was following the bottle directions...they are deliberately underdosed, so you may want to look up the proper dosage by weight on the internet.)

The night went OK given that we stuck Blake in between us to keep an eye on him. At one point, he sat up and asked if he could sleep on the floor instead. OK. As I got him out of bed, he looked at me and said, "Where'd my pants go?" It's like he had a little blackout or something. Even stranger, the next day at lunch, we reminded him that he went in the ambulance and he said, "I did? I had a dream about that." OK. So, he was *really* out of it then.

Faith, who is very into patterns right now, wanted to know if we had to worry Blake having a seizure again in 2 years. (He had one 2 and 1 month ago.) God, I hope not.

He's doing fine now, BTW, and other than having what he called "a frog and a dog in my throat" and coughing like a 2-pack a day smoker when he wakes up, it's like nothing happened. But, George and I have the gray hairs to prove it did.