via Instagram "I was sick today. So our main goal at home was survival. We almost didn't make it. Beth's favorite place the ER. She fainted or had a seizure and stopped breathing for a few minutes. I tried to call 911 but my phone was dead. So I ran my grey lifeless baby into the street screaming for help. @stefaniedelorey came to my aid right as beth took a deep breath. She got the royal treatment at the ER from another friend @karli. Who just happened to be the nurse on call. Long night but she is home resting well and I am hugging my baby tighter."
In a scary day there were tender mercies all around me.
1. That my phone didn't work actually ended up being a blessing. Had it not been dead an ambulence would have been at my house just as Bethy started breathing again. I would have let her go in it because it would have seemed the right thing to do- and that would have been much more traumatic and expensive.
2. That I felt the love of dear friends all around me who were able to help My neighbor Stef came out of her house to help as I ran screaming towards her house. Nobody was outside which never happens- but I saw her garage door open and her car in it so I knew she was home. You always think you have friends around who would help with anything, and it is nice to find that is true when you really are in an emergency. When we arrived at the ER I was greeted with two friendly faces. The daughter of somebody in an old ward, and another nieghbor and friend who were working as nurses that night. It is nice to know that your nurses know you and believe what you are telling them and want to help your child but also support you.
3.The doc on call just happened to be our own family doctor who I obviously trust with our families medical needs. It is good to not have to question the capabilities of the ER doctor.
4. How great it is that my husband (who usually works from his office now) is still only a five minutes drive away. He was able to get home in a matter of minutes after Stef call him while I caught my breath and Bethy actually caught hers and loaded us up into the car together.
5. That I was sick that day was a blessing because we were all in the living room watching movies together. Often the kids might have been in another room- even with Bethany playing while I went about doing chores or something. But I was laid out throwing up on the couch all afternoon with the kids watching cartoons and I saw Bethany fall to the ground. And though it took me a minute to figure out that she was in distress, I didn't wonder about what had occurred and had more information than I might of had she been playing with the kids.
6. My sister in law Lisa had just told me about her son Carter. Who had a febrile seizure and turned blue and stopped breathing the other day. I know what a febrile seizure is, but having this story fresh in my mind helped me to stay pretty calm considering what was happening because while it was happening I thought that this might be what was happening and since it is not that big of a deal I thought it was perhaps this and nothing to be that concerned about (though I wasn't obviously sure so it just took the edge off :)
We were all in the living room watching cartoons in the afternoon because I had been sick with a flu that had been through our entire house the week before. Bethany was teasing Kate so Kate poked Bethany not very hard with a pencil on her hand. Bethany who had been super whiny all day started crying then for about 20 seconds and then threw herself on the ground in a tantrum I thought. But then I realized that she had stopped crying when she laid on the ground. I couldn't see her completely her head was laying on the ground behind the ottoman. So I got up to console her and when I got to her I realized she wasn't moving. So I flipped her over and saw that she was limp, passed out. I brought her up to my chest and kind of shook her and I could see her face was turning blue. She made what I call the death gurgle. Which was a very struggled last attempt to get air in. And then she kind of rolled her eyes back and went completely limp. I listened for breathing and tried to feel for it and I didn't feel anything. She was getting more blue. I went to grab my phone- but I knew it was dead. It was. Still holding Beth upright (this is a blessing too I would know about later) I tried to swipe her throat wondering if maybe she had something in her mouth and was choking. Her jaw was clenched or tight, plus I didn't have any leverage. I could get my finger in her mouth. I decided to see if anyone was outside (usually somebody in the culda sac is outside) that might help me. Oh the kids were just watching terrified this whole time) I didn't see anybody but I did see the Delory's garage open and their car in it. Their home is not the closest to me- or the nurse that lives on our street, but I didn't want to waste time knocking doors if people weren't home. So I ran screaming for help towards their house. Her kids saw me (and were terrified as well) but got her and she came out to help. Just as Bethany took a breath. The whole ordeal was maybe 3 minutes maybe 4. But seemed like that better part of my lifetime. I sat crying on the Delory's porch while instead of having her call 911, she called Jake for me and I told him to come home. Bethany was a little bit out of it but opened her eyes and was breathing fine.
I took her to the ER. I told them she had passed out, possibly had a seizure- her jaw locked made me believe that- I had seen a lot of seizure from when I use to work in mental health and it wasn't completely different than ones I had witnessed. And that we had been sick at our house so febrile seizure maybe but I wanted to be sure. They got us in a room. They monitored her took her blood and urine for testing. The blood collecting was more traumatic than the episode to her I believe. And the only thing they were able to rule out was a febrile seizure because she did not have a fever or an elevated white blood cell count. In fact most everything looked normal. We were sent home after about four hours. The tests so confirm seizure are very intrusive and our Doctor didn't suggest them until it had happened at least twice. I agreed. We checked in with our Doctor the next day and came to some kind of conclusion. Bethany has a minor tummy issue, and possibly a minor heart issue just like Kate. And the two together combined may have dropped her blood pressure low enough that she stopped breathing for a minute or two. Unknowingly to me the way you can get blood pressure to regulate is to get the baby to be upright not laying down (which I had done accidentally as I carried Bethany across the street which is when she started coming back to me).
Needless to say it was a scary and exhausting evening. I hugged my baby a bit tighter, and tried to get her to sleep next to me in my bed so I could watch her. She ended up in the pack in play in my room for a couple of days just because I could nt let her out of my sight. But seems to be fine with no more episodes. And hopefully no more in the future as well.
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