Maybe Life Wants Me on Bedrest

So, after yesterday's excitement, I think I'll be generally staying in bed most of the day today.

Wait, I guess a lot has happened since I posted yesterday afternoon. Yesterday when I posted, I was getting ready to meet Bruce and Caetlin out for lunch at the local Chik-Fil-A, which is newly remodeled and has an indoor playground. I was going to go into the office at that point (you'll notice none of this is exactly close to bed rest) and then maybe go have my nails done. Caetlin was going home to take her nap, and if all went well, I would get home right as she woke up.

At Chik-Fil-A, Bruce and I kind of discussed that Caetlin seemed a little under the weather, a little not herself, and while I was there, she seemed to get more and more out of it. We dosed her with Tylenol there in the restaurant, as she felt a little warm, and Bruce ended up taking her home early.

I had only been at work maybe 30 minutes when Bruce called me. "She's had a seizure," he said. "The paramedics are on their way." I told him I would be right there, and they were on their way heading out the door when I got home, ready to ride to the hospital. Caetlin attached herself to me when I got there, having apparently just thrown up much of her lunch.

Most reading here will know that we've had these kind of issues before. Caetlin has a history of febrile seizures, brought on by a quickly spiking fever, lasting a very short time and doing no neurological damage. So we're kind of used to this, and I even sort of expected that we might not go to the hospital this time, but the vomiting sealed the deal. So I hopped into the ambulance with her, the paramedic strapped me onto the gurney with Caetlin falling asleep in my arms, and away we went.

A few hours later and a dose of Zofran for the nausea and Motrin for the (now 103.5 degree) fever, and we were on our way. They took a urine sample to rule out a UTI as the underlying cause of the fever, but it was clear under the microscope. They will culture it, but all of us expect that Caetlin has a pretty virulent strain of the stomach bug that is going around. (The urine sample sucked, as the nurse had to try three times to catheterize the poor baby. Even though the cath is tiny, it was really, really unpleasant for Caetlin, who spent the evening screaming and holding her crotch whenever she urinated.)

Anyway, we know the drill- alternate Tylenol and Motrin every three hours. With the hospital Motrin in her, she seemed like a different child, running and talking and playing around the house completely normally. We gave her a pretty bland dinner of bananas and Jello and put her to bed early, since she was sick and had no nap.

She fell asleep easily, and rested comfortably for awhile. But after a few hours she was breathing a little huffily, a little bit like panting, in her sleep. She didn't sound congested, exactly- more like she just didn't feel well. We dosed her with Motrin, and all of us slept badly until about 2 a.m., when we gave her Tylenol again. At about 2:45, Bruce was watching her on the monitor and said to me, "She's having another seizure."

I got dressed and told him, "We're going to the hospital." He asked me if we should call 911, and I said I thought we could get her there faster ourselves. We packed a few things in the diaper bag and took off down the highway. Caetlin was in her post-seizure passed-out phase, which to me is almost scarier than the seizure itself.

So, 12 hours later we found ourselves in the same ER, in the very same room, as a matter of fact. They took her temperature and gave her Motrin, and we waited long enough to see the doctor that it had kicked in by then and she almost didn't even look sick when she was seen. She was talking, awake, laughing and smiling, cooperative, everything. We were sent home with the exact same discharge instructions, after the exact same drugs and examination results. I had been hoping for something else to do to control her fever, besides just the Tylenol and Motrin, but the doctor said anti-seizure medication isn't really called for here, and that was about all he could do. We asked if we should even bring her in if she has another seizure, and the nurse said to call the emergency department directly. 9 times out of 10 they will say to come in, but we might be number 10, if by some horrible chance she has a third one over the next few hours.

She has never had two with the same illness. That's new.

Anyway, we're all at home, I'm about to pass out, and Caetlin appears to be resting comfortably for the time being. She's due for Tylenol at 7 a.m., but hopefully she will sleep through it. The Tylenol seems to be doing nothing for the fever anyway.

To top it all off, carrying her around this afternoon meant I strained some of the muscles in my groin, and so I'm walking around like an old lady, groaning when I have to get into bed or try to turn over. I forgot the pain when it was time to get her to the hospital the second time, but it's back now with a vengeance.

I still have work to do today. This has not been an ideal way to get my blood pressure down, I must say.

Anyway, must sleep now.