An Unexpected Helmet Break

So last Thursday (two days before we were scheduled to leave for our first family vacation in Myrtle Beach), Ella was not herself. During breakfast, she put her head down on her high chair tray to rest and was generally not herself. She had TWO 2 hour naps that day, and she has never done that in her life. (I can't say I minded that part too much though!).

Not feeling myself, Mama. I'll just rest here. This rice cereal is wearing me out.

TEETH! I thought. Like every mother in the world, anytime Ella is off (CRANKY! NOT SLEEPING! MAD! SHAKING HER FIST AT LIFE!) I blamed her teeth. Poor teeth get a bad rap. Don't get me wrong, teething is horrible and comes with a plethora of unforeseen complications and generally make our poor babies feel horrid, but it is certainly not the only thing that could be wrong?

That afternoon, after her second nap, she ran a fever of 38.5C axillary (101.3F). Again, still blaming teething at this point I gave her some frozen foods and some Advil to bring down the fever. She wasn't herself that night, but she went to sleep easily.

Next clue that something was wrong, was when I awoke at 7:15am and Ella was not up yet. Ella is a lover of all things crack of dawn related. A 'sleep in' for her is sleeping til sometime when there is a 6 as the first number on the clock. When she finally awoke at 7:45am, and I picked her up. She was burning up. Her fever was 39.5 (103.1F), and this was axillary as well, so in actuality it was higher than that. She was lethargic, droopy and generally feeling horrid.

This is not my sassy, go get em' baby girl. :(

I made an appointment with our MD because the fever was so high. He said it was a virus. Push fluids, alternate Tylenol and Advil and we were safe to travel on Sunday. He commented on how sick Ella looked, and how sad, as she is usually quite chipper to see him, even though he gives her shots on many visits! (I don't think she correlates the two.)

We spent much of the day cuddling, and Ella was so lethargic she didn't really want to do anything but nap and cuddle with Mama. Her fever came down a bit to 38.0, so I figured it was a virus that was on the way out and she would start feeling better soon.

I was wrong.

I put Ella in her high chair for dinner. I knew something was seriously wrong when I offered her watermelon and she refused to eat it. She could probably eat a whole one on her own, she loves them that much. Her eyes were swollen, and it was obvious her temperature was climbing again.

I am giving you a mini smile but I feel like cr@p, Mama.

When I took Ella out of her high chair and put her in her jammies, her lips turned blue and she started shaking and convulsing. I was HORRIFIED. She was having a febrile seizure from the temperature, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, except hug her and hope it passed quickly. It stopped, and I put her down for a second to grab my purse so we could run to the hospital. She looked at me in a daze and fell over. Ella is 10.5months and has been sitting independently since she was 5.5 months old. :( I scooped her up and rushed to the ER (living in the country means that it is faster to DRIVE to the ER then to call 911 and wait for the ambulance).

I was so upset when I got there, all I could say was "Baby! Blue Lips! Convulsions! Fever!" They took her temperature again and it was 39.5 axillary, so up over 40C rectally. We were brought back in the ER with diagnosis of "Uncontrolled Fever in Infant". 

My poor baby girl. :(

Now as an aside here, with Steve's new job, he almost never has to work overtime and is home 99.9% of the time by 4pm. This day, he was executing a warrant, and was actually LEGALLY not allowed to leave work until he heard back from the judge. So during all of this, while I'm at home panicking alone, Steve is at work panicking and trapped and not able to join us. My friend Laura, lives two minutes from the hospital, and joined me as soon as I texted her. Thank God for good friends, because I was a horrible mess by the time she got there. :(

The stripped her down to her diaper, and kept giving her doses of Tylenol and Advil. It took four hours to get her temperature under control. The doctor asked me how much Tylenol and Advil I had been giving her at home. When I mentioned the doses (as per the boxes instructions) she laughed and basically said that I was giving her "half doses" and told me how to calculate it based on her weight and the maximum she was "really" allowed. THANK YOU TYLENOL AND ADVIL FOR NOT MENTIONING THAT ON YOUR PRODUCT ANYWHERE. Where were you when I really needed you?

We pushed fluids while we were there to try and get a urine sample (which ended up being clean). Ella spent most of the time trying to play with the water instead of drinking it. In my haste to get to the ER, I forgot her sippy cup, so we ended up syringe-ing it into her, or trying to get her to drink from the cup.

In the end, we were discharged that night. Her fever was down and they suspected a virus still. They basically said we were still safe to travel on Sunday but they gave us a prescription of antibiotics to administer if her fever wasn't down by Monday. Her fever broke on Sunday, and she broke out in a rash that day. She ended up with Roseola, which basically manifests itself as a very high sudden fever for 3-5 days, then a rash over the trunk that spreads to the face and extremities. 15% of babies will have a febrile seizure because of the severity of the temperature and the speed at which it comes on. Ella was one of that 15%.

Because of the fever, and the rash that ended up spreading all over her forehead, we ended up helmet free for 6 days. That is by far the longest we've ever gone without it. I can tell you, it was very difficult to put it back on after such a long break. Regardless, we persevered, enjoyed our vacation (that's a whole other blog post, stay tuned!) and we are back in the helmet for 10 more days! Almost there.

Thanks for the helmet break, Mama! 10 days to go! Let's git er done! BOOYAH!

And that is the story of Ella's first real 'illness', our first significant helmet break, our first ER visit, and how we almost (but didn't!) miss our flight to Myrtle Beach. Exciting times over here at the Fryer household. A little too exciting if you ask me.