A bit of a scare

We had a little bit of a scare with Gage Saturday night. We're still not sure what happened but we're waiting to do some tests to see what (if anything) is wrong. Let me start from that morning:

Gage had 2 small rashes on his leg the day before. It didn't look too bad, but I didn't know where it came from. I wasn't too worried though. Gavin is prone to random rashes. My mom said that I did that when I was little.

When he woke up Saturday morning the rash on his left leg looked terrible, big bumpy, rough blisters, and a big spot under his eye that made it look swollen. I was a bit concerned but it was Saturday and while the Dr. office is open, it's only open as long as there are patients coming in. If they don't get any patients, they leave early. I called around 3pm and they were already closed. I still wasn't too worried. I figured it could wait till Monday. He didn't seem to be bothered by it.

He was fine all day. It was warm so we went outside and played for awhile. He napped (not long... maybe 45 min.) It was around 7:30 that evening and I was about to get the boys ready for bed and noticed Gage lying on the rug in the kitchen. He's been pretending to be asleep and you say wake up and he'll sit up and when you say close your eyes, he'll put his hand over his eyes and pretend to snore. I told him to wake up, and he sat up and smiled, then laid back down. We done that about 3 times then I left the room (hubby and Gavin were sitting at the bar right beside him) I come back in a few minutes later and he's lying in the living room floor. Hubby said, Look at that! I thought he'd fell asleep in the floor (he does that if he doesn't nap long enough). I walked over to him and saw his eyes were open so I picked him up, sat him on my lap and said, Gage, are you OK?

About that time, he started throwing up all over the place. I thought, 'Darn, it's gonna be a long night.' But I wasn't too surprised, a virus would explain the rash. Gavin does that every time he gets a stomach bug.

I took him to his bed to get him changed and cleaned up and he starts just rolling from one position to another like he's trying to get comfortable to go to sleep but couldn't. Then his hands started shaking and he grabbed the side of the bed like he was dizzy. Then all of a sudden, while he was lying on his side, His shoulder started twitching really bad, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he done something weird with his mouth. At first I thought it looked like he was smiling but the only way  I can explain how it looked was like a dog, when it's barring its teeth but just on one side... like a snarl maybe? Anyway, I almost freaked. The only thing going through my mind was he's having a seizure. My baby is having a seizure. I got Gavin to go get my husband but by the time he got there, it was over. He was still just lying there with his eyes open but he wasn't seizing anymore. Hubby asked if we needed to go to the hospital, I said I thought so. But we just kept watching him, we were talking about calling my mom and having her meet us there to pick up Gavin when Gage sat up and said 'mama'.

So we decided to watch him a few more minutes to see how he done. He was just lying there acting like he wanted to go to sleep but we didn't want him to go to sleep right then so I took him to the living room and started putting Gavin to bed while hubby stayed w/ Gage. Gavin of course was crying (he normally does at bedtime). I heard hubby say 'Oh nooo'. Gage started throwing up again. I got Gavin laid down and came back in the living room where hubby was in the process of cleaning up more puke (by this time, we were completely out of towels!)

We got it cleaned up and I sat on the couch holding Gage. He seemed to be doing better. He still couldn't sit up or even hold his head up but he was watching TV and he seemed to understand when hubby or I spoke to him. He started having like little twitches every now and then, we were still debating taking him to the ER. My mom called back, she was worried about him ( I didn't mention that I was on the phone w/ her when he started having a possible seizure. I kinda just said something, I don't remember, and hung up on her)

I was telling her that he was doing some better but we still might go on to the hospital when he just sat up and started talking. He wanted to talk to her on the phone and was talking nonstop. Then he wanted to talk to my dad, 'Papaw'. He was jabbering so fast, I couldn't understand him but me and hubby had to laugh. It was like he was a completely different child than 5 minutes before!

He got off the phone and I gave him some water. He sat with his daddy for awhile watching Harry Potter on tv and then got down and started playing like normal. I let him stay up a bit longer and then put him to bed. I kept checking on him after he went to sleep. I would listen to him breathe and think, That is the best sound in the world!

The next morning, he was fine. He acted like his normal little happy self. The rash was still there but not as red as it was. I tried to call the Dr again. They were supposed to have a phone nurse 24 hrs a day but I never reached her. So I had to wait till Monday. Which he was perfectly fine all day.

My pediatricians office has a first come, first serve type clinic every morning from 7:30 to 8:30 where you can just walk in without an appointment. I took him to that, I was 30 minutes early. I didn't want to take the chance of not being seen! I was the second car there!

I check in, get back into a room, and tell the nurse what went on. She asked if there was any family history of seizures. Uh, no, or else I would know what was wrong with him. She went through the regular stuff, allergies, weighing him, taking temperature. (oh, I didn't mention before, the weirdest thing about the whole episode was he had absolutely no fever. He was actually cold to the touch like a cold sweat. He never did run a fever all day)


The doctor came in, I had never seen him before but I recognized his name: Dr. O'Donnell. He asked me to retell everything that had went on (which was a good thing b/c I had forgotten to tell the nurse some of it). He was wonderful. He asked me questions like, when you picked him up, what did he look like. Or when you did this, how did he react. I mean he wanted every little detail which I thought was great. Most doctors I've been to don't do that.

He said that Gage might have had a small seizure, I think he called it a focal seizure. He explained what all that meant. Or he said that he might have just been that nauseous and had been dizzy from puking. Not to mention he was very tired from not napping much that day. But he did say the thing that worried him was the lack of fever and the fact that Gage is the age where they usually see children start having seizures. He said if he would have had a high fever, it could explain more of how he was acting. Calling it something like, a fever seizure which he said could be quite common. If he'd had a fever the Dr. said he probably would've just sent us home. He told me that a lot of times, being sick with something like a virus can bring on a seizure. So he said he thought that it maybe Gage had 2 different things going on. The virus caused the rash (he was sure of that) and then possibly that caused the seizure. He said normally what they would do is send us to a neurologist and do an EEG and an MRI, which would mean sedating him. But since this was Gage's first, the doc said he'd give us the first one free and then if it happened again, we'd have to do the MRI. He was going to talk to Gage's regular doctor first to make sure she agreed and then make an appointment to just do an EEG to see what that tells us. If that comes back normal, we'll just wait and see if it happens again.


They haven't called me back yet for with the date for the EEG but Dr. O'Donnell said if we could get it within 2 weeks he'd be happy. I'm still waiting for that but in the meantime, I'm watching him like a hawk! I sit and watch him play, sleep, whatever. Something scary like that really makes you appreciate healthy kids. I always took it for granted that my kids were healthy and normal. So for now, I just thank God everyday for my babies. I know we don't know what's wrong with Gage yet... hopefully nothing, but I just think of all the children out there that do have serious health problems, and my heart breaks for them and their families. I was terrified when Gage wasn't acting right. I can't imagine how it feels to see your own child with a major problem. I have been praying for those families and hope you will too. Please keep Gage in your prayers too, I don't know what is going to happen, what might have been or is wrong with him, but I'm praying that the EEG comes out fine.