Not a Fun Way to Wake Up

At 3:20 AM Friday morning, I was awoken to Finn in the midst of a seizure. He sleeps with me otherwise I don't know how I would even have known he was having it. He was shaking all over and his eyes were rolling up in his head. It was completely terrifying. Especially since I had put him to bed completely healthy. I yelled for Bryon to wake up, and he shot out of bed. It didn't last more than 30 seconds, and once he wasn't seizing any longer, I established that he was still breathing okay though he was barely responsive and was moaning pathetically. It took me a couple of minutes to realize he had a fever and that was absolutely horrifying. A febrile seizure SUCKS, but a seizure not caused by fever is much worse.

Nicky had a febrile seizure when he was one so I knew all about febrile seizures. So I checked his fever which was 102, got some Motrin in him, and put him in the car, and we went to the ER. There was no one there. It's the fastest I've ever gotten into that ER. In the couple of minutes we did have to wait Finn started to perk up a little, he even pointed at the aquarium and told me it was a "BIG fish."

When they checked him in, his fever was 103.5 and they gave him some tylenol. We were put in a room and saw the doctor. He checked him over and said that he didn't see anything obvious so they were going to run some tests. First, they did the awful nose swab, and then they did a chest x-ray. Remember the torture device they put him in when he had pneumonia? Yeah, that was fun to repeat. After that we came back to the room, and they took a blood sample. It was horrible. Finn is strong, and even though he was sick his strength to fight back wasn't much diminished. They had to wrap him up like a little toddler burrito just to get the blood. Then we waited a really long time. The nurse, Brian, was great. He was really nice and helpful. He brought Finn a Teddy Bear and a snack. Finn really liked the Jello. Well he liked chopping it up with his spoon anyway.


The doctor apparently ordered an IV and the nurse came in and tried very hard to get the needle in a vein. However, with an angry squirming toddler who apparently has my slippery veins, we were about 5 minutes into the project when the doctor finally came in for the second time (around 6:30) and said that he should just give it up. At this point, he told me that all his tests were normal so everything was pointing toward a virus. He'd also talked to our pediatrician's office and they wanted us to come by for a recheck later that morning. So they sent us home since his temp was back to normal with the motrin and tylenol he'd gotten.

Finn slept most of the morning, and we went to his pediatrician's office about noon. Well he checked his ears and agreed they were fine. Then he checked his throat... It was at this point that I realized the doctor at the ER hadn't even bothered to so much as look at his throat. The source of the problem was completely obvious the moment he looked. His throat was swollen and there were actually pockets of pus on his tonsils....I know, beautiful imagery, but that's what he said. Now why couldn't the ER Doctor have just looked at his throat and seen that instead of subjecting him to blood tests and chest x-rays!? Okay, he might have wanted to do a blood test anyway just to make sure there wasn't anything else, but still!!!

My Mommy came to help me take care of him and Nicky. I love my Mommy! Last night was no fun. His temperature stayed high pretty much all night. It hovered just below 102 all night, even though we were alternating motrin and tylenol every three hours. It broke finally around 4. He still feels really awful. His throat naturally is hurting really awfully still, but at least *KNOCKS ON WOOD* his fever has stayed consistently down with medicine.

So of the worst ways I've ever been woken up, this was definitely the winner.