From Joy to Terror

Well Sunday afternoon Nov 16, 2008 we were enjoying a nice lunch and Olivia began to feed herself a slice of watermelon. We were overjoyed that she was able to do so, i took a short video and some pictures, the day was going too well maybe.

That same night we put Olivia to bed only for her to wake up a few hours later crying hysterically. In the dark we could not see what was wrong, therefore we brought her downstairs. Quickly we realized that she was burning up again with fever and non responsive, she was lying limp on the kitchen counter while my husband in a panic called for help from family. Within minutes that they arrived Olivia was still in and out of conciousness, so we decided to call 911. The ambulance was here within minutes we explained what had happened and withing seconds she was in the ambulance and off to the Children's. You figure we arrive by ambulance they will see us quickly, well we passed through triage quickly and saw a nurse and then waited 3 hours to see a doctor whom i had to ask to do blood tests. She told me "it is not in our protocol to run bloods for a febrile seizure". We insisted and they finally did it, by this time it is 4am and we still have no news, they come back tell us she may have a virus keep an eye on the fever and see her pediatrician in a few days. As for the febrile seizures, very common and explained what to do. Easy to explain when it is not happening to your child.

By 7am they released us and told us to keep giving here Tylenol, on the way home Olivia was burning up again and just as we reached the house she began to seize again. We took her out of the car and quickly did what we were told and it stopped quickly, gave her Tylenol and the fever went down.

At 1230pm we got the scare of our lives, she was in her highchair eating some soup when it began again, but this time was worse she turned blue in the face almost instantly. In a panic we dialed 911 again and they rushed her to Cite de la Sante. Within 20 minutes Olivia had an IV running, they had taken blood and urine sample and prepared to have her admitted. We could not believe how fast and how amazing there service and attention was. Within 3 hrs she was in her room and they were trying to control the fevers, she had another seizure like the one at home at 6pm on Monday night and that was the last one (THANK GOD).

They ran a battery of tests for everything that they could think of, meanwhile placed on another medication to stop the seizures seemed to be working. Her fevers were quite consistent every 4 to 6 hrs. By Wednesday Nov 19 the fevers had diminished and Olivia was starting to look like herself again.

We were happy that all of the tests returned negative and therefore all it was was a virus, she was able for the first time in her life to fight something off on her own without being on antibiotics for the next month.

She is finally home where she belongs and back to herself, she is still progressing despite the set back this week and we are very happy for that.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.