We've had quite the week, thanks to something known as RSV. It all started last Friday morning. As it's getting late and I'm quite exhausted, I'm just going to copy and paste some experts from e-mails I wrote to my family.
Friday, February 24th
Just wanted to let you know what happened to our Hanna this morning.
Heidi woke-up with a very high fever this morning. We gave her some medicine, and she soon felt better. Hanna seemed to be totally fine.
While making breakfast, Hanna was sitting in her high chair and I noticed her shiver very strong a couple of times. I touched her hands, and they were freezing cold, yet her head was warm, but not feverish. I quickly put a wool sweater on her and wrapped her in a blanket and cuddled her for a while, thinking that she was just too cold and not feeling good herself. She then laid on the couch while I finished getting breakfast for the other kids and only ate a couple of crackers for breakfast.
I put Madelynn down for her morning nap (she goes down early, around 9 as she wakes up so early), David came downstairs and stayed with Micah, H & H, and I took Nina to kindergarten (Aria was already in school). I returned from taking Nina, and David was taking Hanna's temperature. She wasn't running a fever, or if she was it was extremely low.
I then sat on the couch and was holding Hanna and cuddling with her, as she was not acting quite right. Micah and Heidi were playing, and David and I were talking. All of a sudden, I noticed that Hanna began going into convulsions, and her eyes rolled back into her head. She went limp and acted as though she was not even breathing.
David and I panicked, to say the least. That had to have been the most scariest moment of my life yet.
What was so scary for me, is that David, who seems to always know what to do, went into shock and had no idea what to do. He was holding Hanna by this time who was continuing to have convulsions (typical to an epileptic seizure). We finally realized that we needed to call the ambulance, which I quickly did. While I was on the phone, David quickly ran with Hanna to his aunt who lives next door, begging for her help. She called the ambulance, but it was already on it's way as I had just called them. They got here in about 5 minutes. David's aunt came and stayed with Heidi and Micah, and David and I went into the ambulance with Hanna while the doctors worked on her. They gave her some oxygen and an IV of electrolytes. By the time the ambulance came, she had stopped convulsing, but was laying limp and motionless in David's arms. Now, she just laid there on the ambulance bed like she was sleeping. She didn't even cry much when they put the IV in her, which is totally not like Hanna! She started crying once they strapped her onto the bed to take her to the children's hospital. As Madelynn still is nursing and Heidi herself is sick (and Micah too), I stayed here at home, and David rode with Hanna in the ambulance to the hospital.
David and Hanna have been gone now several hours. Hanna has undergone many tests already, all of which were not so fun. Right now, David called and said that she was sleeping. She will probably stay there for several nights/days. Probably over the weekend. We have to wait until the results come back from the tests, but so far, all the doctors have told us that it is not uncommon for children her age to have a seizure if they have a fever, their temperature changes quickly, or some kind of infection. They said that it's nothing to be too concerned about, so hopefully that's true.
Heidi woke-up with a very high fever this morning. We gave her some medicine, and she soon felt better. Hanna seemed to be totally fine.
While making breakfast, Hanna was sitting in her high chair and I noticed her shiver very strong a couple of times. I touched her hands, and they were freezing cold, yet her head was warm, but not feverish. I quickly put a wool sweater on her and wrapped her in a blanket and cuddled her for a while, thinking that she was just too cold and not feeling good herself. She then laid on the couch while I finished getting breakfast for the other kids and only ate a couple of crackers for breakfast.
I put Madelynn down for her morning nap (she goes down early, around 9 as she wakes up so early), David came downstairs and stayed with Micah, H & H, and I took Nina to kindergarten (Aria was already in school). I returned from taking Nina, and David was taking Hanna's temperature. She wasn't running a fever, or if she was it was extremely low.
I then sat on the couch and was holding Hanna and cuddling with her, as she was not acting quite right. Micah and Heidi were playing, and David and I were talking. All of a sudden, I noticed that Hanna began going into convulsions, and her eyes rolled back into her head. She went limp and acted as though she was not even breathing.
David and I panicked, to say the least. That had to have been the most scariest moment of my life yet.
What was so scary for me, is that David, who seems to always know what to do, went into shock and had no idea what to do. He was holding Hanna by this time who was continuing to have convulsions (typical to an epileptic seizure). We finally realized that we needed to call the ambulance, which I quickly did. While I was on the phone, David quickly ran with Hanna to his aunt who lives next door, begging for her help. She called the ambulance, but it was already on it's way as I had just called them. They got here in about 5 minutes. David's aunt came and stayed with Heidi and Micah, and David and I went into the ambulance with Hanna while the doctors worked on her. They gave her some oxygen and an IV of electrolytes. By the time the ambulance came, she had stopped convulsing, but was laying limp and motionless in David's arms. Now, she just laid there on the ambulance bed like she was sleeping. She didn't even cry much when they put the IV in her, which is totally not like Hanna! She started crying once they strapped her onto the bed to take her to the children's hospital. As Madelynn still is nursing and Heidi herself is sick (and Micah too), I stayed here at home, and David rode with Hanna in the ambulance to the hospital.
David and Hanna have been gone now several hours. Hanna has undergone many tests already, all of which were not so fun. Right now, David called and said that she was sleeping. She will probably stay there for several nights/days. Probably over the weekend. We have to wait until the results come back from the tests, but so far, all the doctors have told us that it is not uncommon for children her age to have a seizure if they have a fever, their temperature changes quickly, or some kind of infection. They said that it's nothing to be too concerned about, so hopefully that's true.
After various tests, we were so thankful to hear that everything was totally fine with Hanna's brain (meaning, it was no epileptic seizure). It was concluded that Hanna had a "fever cramp". We were told that 3-5% of children experience these up until school age, as it has to do with the way the brain is developing. The body temperature either rises or drops too quickly, and it is too much for the body, causing it to go into convulsions. Supposedly, they are not dangerous, just very scary and shocking! So, we don't know if our Hanna will ever have another one of these "fever cramps" again or not. But at least next time, we'll know what's going on!
While at the hospital, it was determined that Hanna has the RS virus. (A nasty virus which produces fevers, a terrible cough, loss of appetite, and exhaustion.) As it is very contagious, David and I right away thought about our other children at home who were also coughing and experiencing fevers. The doctors wanted to check them out too, so we took them all (except Aria and Nina who were acting fine at this time) to the doctors. The doctors sent them all back home (thankfully!) saying that they did not look so bad as to have the RS virus.
David and Hanna spent the weekend in the hospital and came home on Monday. During their stay there, Heidi and Madelynn experienced extremely high fevers (over 40 degrees C/ 104 F). We were battling these high fevers for 2-3 days with both little girls. Finally, the fevers went down! PTL! (Why did we not take Heidi and Madelynn to the hospital also? Well, we were close to doing so, but did not want them to have to go through all the difficult tests and needles which Hanna had too. Plus, we thought they would recover and rest better at home than in a hospital.)
This past week, we kept all the kids home from school and kindergarten (as all of them were not feeling well... we found out later Aria has a very bad middle ear infection!). We've done our best to rest, drink lots, take our medicines, and get fresh air (which is good for the coughing). I think we are finally on the mend now, as we no longer are having to deal with fevers. It's just this really nasty cough (which we now all have) and a lack of appetite which we need to overcome now.
We are exhausted, but SO thankful that our little ones are (slowly) getting better!
We all take turns using an inhaler (is that what they are called in English???) three times a day.
Trying to drink our water quota for the day!
1 comment:
I can truly relate to what you went through, it is very scary. Timothy had a febrile seizure our very first night in Russia. He was 9 mths old and had a few more after that but grew out of them by the time he was 2yrs old.
Gudrun.
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