Our Precious Karlee

Our munchkin Karlee, gave us the scare of our lives on Sunday. She and I had just laid down to take a nap together and she had a seizure.

What I’m about to describe isn’t meant to scare any of you and isn’t meant to get attention or sympathy. It’s simply the only way I know how to deal with such a scary situation, without having to repeat the horrible story and go over it in my head over and over again.

As we were laying in bed (We call it Sunday under the covers!), I started playing with her hair , when all of a sudden she started making very strange noises as she was staring at the ceiling fan. At first I thought she was just being silly, so I laid and watched her watching the fan. After about a minute I noticed she hadn’t blinked so I poked her and said “Karlee, whatcha’ looking at?” No response, No blinking. So I watched her a few more seconds and noticed that she would twitch her hand or leg every so often, so I knew she was still breathing. After a few more seconds I decided to sit up in bed and really take a good look at her to see if she was really watching the ceiling fan. As I sat up, I noticed drool coming out the side of her mouth. As I picked her up she was definitely breathing, but limp as anything I have ever picked up before. She was still making the stranger noises, and still twitching every so often, but that was it. I grabbed the cordless phone and dialed Scott’s cell phone and I ran her into the kitchen. (He and Gunner were outside doing “man” stuff). I told him to come quick and hung up the phone. At this point I thought, “Hmmm, maybe these noises are just her getting ready to get sick.” SO I sat us down on the dining room floor thinking if she was going to get sick she could get sick wherever she wanted and I’d worry about cleaning up the mess later (I thought this would be less traumatic than hanging her over the toilet or a garbage can.) But as we sat down I took one look at her PALE face and lack of eye contact and realized there was something much worse going on than an upset stomach. About this time Scott walked in so I handed her over to him. He turned her over and patted her back a couple of times, thinking maybe she was choking. I was sure she probably wasn’t, but I was willing to try anything. Hundreds of thoughts raced through my mind as to what could be going on. Even though she hadn’t been out of my sight the entire day, I still second-guessed myself and thought maybe somehow she had gotten in to poison, or had an allergic reaction, or gotten into our cleaning solutions…anything to explain what we couldn’t explain. After about another 10 seconds of her “episode” it finally stopped, and color started returning to her face. (For those of you wondering why we didn’t call 911, we live so far out in the country we knew it would be much faster to drive to town than to wait for an ambulance to get lost before finding us). We started to head to the truck to go to the hospital, but as we got there she was all of a sudden much better, and neither of us REALLY knew what had just happened. We didn’t know what we would tell the hospital staff, and didn’t know if maybe our emotions had clouded our judgment, and maybe it wasn’t as bad as what we thought we had just seen. So we headed back in the house to keep an eye on her. As I sat down on the couch Karlee immediately wanted to go to sleep. Scott and I were both too afraid to let her sleep, so we kept waking her up which only succeeded in a mad baby. All of a sudden I happened to touch her face and it was so hot it burned my hand. When I took her temp it hit 102.6 so quickly that I didn’t wait to get a final temp, I knew it was hotter than it should be, so I gave her some Tylenol and got a couple cool rags to drape around her neck and shoulders. Shortly after that I noticed her heart was pounding so hard I thought it would beat out of her chest, so at that point we loaded up in the truck and headed to the E.R. I didn’t care that what I was about to describe probably wouldn’t make sense to anyone, but I didn’t care.

When we arrived there were a couple families in the waiting room, but once I filled out the “why you are here” card they took us right back and hooked her up to cords and monitors, so whatever it was I didn’t think I could describe I must have said the “magic word” because we got prompt attention. Her heart rate was still super high 190 a minute (120 is a much better number for a baby her age) a couple of times it went over 200 beats a minute. After a complete work up and blood being drawn (I cried as usual), the doctor told us she had had a Febrile Seizure. He assured us that she was okay, and wouldn’t have any long-term side effects, but that she more than likely would continue to have these seizures until she grew out of them (roughly age 6) whenever she had a high temp that came on suddenly, but that there really isn’t much you can do to prepare or prevent them.

I am so thankful, that, although the seizure was a horrible experience and I hope and pray I never have to go through one again, she is still a healthy, happy little girl that makes my heart melt whenever she looks at me. It has also reminded Scott and I that nothing in life is guaranteed, including life, and you need to cherish every SECOND you have of it. You have no warning of things like this, and the only thing you can really do is be grateful to God for every single thing he has given you in life.