Aubin? Aubin? Call 911.
Those words are burned in my head. They might be the
scariest phrase I have ever heard.
Sunday, Aubin had a febrile seizure. The days prior she was
not feeling her best by any means. She was tired, cranky and had a terrible
cough which led to her throwing up after every feeding. Her temperature ranged
from 101-104, and we attributed it to her teething. Around 2pm Levi
brought her to me and said, do you think she looks a bit blue?? And she did. My
parents were visiting from Ohio, and my dad uses a CPap machine so I went
upstairs, let her lay on my chest, and put his CPap in front of her face and
she perked right up. Right there I should have known I needed to take her to
the emergency room. Then around 7, we decided that it was time to go to the ER because
she was just miserable. I was on the phone with our insurance trying
to figure out what hospital was covered (again terrible mom not knowing that!!) and I hear
those awful words…Aubin? AUBIN?? CALL 911!!
That was by far the scariest three minutes of my life. I was
on the phone with 911, my mom and Levi were with Aubin, and my dad was getting things
we needed to go to the hospital. Everyone just knew their roles, kept as calm
as possible, and focused on helping Aubs. Watching your child convulse, be
unresponsive, and turn blue is absolutely the worst, most helpless feeling in
the world. The paramedics showed up and explained she had a Febrile Seizure as
a result of her 104 temperature. A baby has these seizures to regulate their
temperature if it gets too high. Aubin was strapped into the ambulance and she
just looked so scared and upset.
The ride to Duke took forever, or so it seemed. She got sick twice on the way there and her heart rate was over 200 but her oxygen was in
the low 80s. Once we were in the emergency department they tried to start an IV
on her. She was stuck 4 times before they brought in the ultrasound to get her
vein. Awful. Again, holding your child down so someone can make them a pin
cushion is just awful. After that she went for a chest xray where we found out
she had bacterial pneumonia-which was causing all of her coughing. We were
admitted around 1 am.
The next 3 days were full of nurses, doctors, temp and
oxygen checks. Aubin was unable to regulate her O2 levels so she needed a nasal
cannula and then a tube called a blow by to make sure she was getting enough. She
was just not herself and just wanted to cuddle all day and all night long. One
of us would sleep with her in our chair while the other slept on the floor of
the hospital room. While it wasn’t the most ideal situation, we made the best
of it.
The last day, we were cleared to take her with us to the cafeteria in a
wagon and low and behold we ran into our doctor. Aubin was alert and happy when
we saw him, and once he saw her, he said that we would be going home that
day!
Aubin is doing much better but we are still on alert for any
difference in her. We went out and purchased 500 bottles of baby Motrin so we
can give it to her at the first sign of a fever. The hardest thing about this
is knowing that there is a high possibility that this can happen again. All we
can do is be as vigilant and prepared as possible. I wish we would have known
about febrile seizures from day one. If I could tell anyone who has kids,
please be mindful of temperatures and trust your gut so you don’t know have to
go through what we went through.
Thank you to everyone for the calls, texts, facetimes, emails, visits, food, thoughts and prayers. We truly appreciate all of you and so does little miss!!
Do Great Things
Linds
