Our Spring Break

OK, so this is how our Spring break started. On Saturday Matthew and Madison were playing in his room and all of a sudden we hear a loud thump and immediate crying. Mario went running into his room to find a small cut right above his left eye. When Mario brought him to me I tried to clean it off but the blood was making it hard to visualize the cut so we took him to Cook children's urgent care that's close by. Unfortunately they were unable to glue the cut together because it was right through the middle of his eye brow. Matthew did such a great job cooperating for the Dr until she started with the stitches. He just yelled mostly requesting a burrito. Maybe his request had something to do with him being wrapped up like a burrito to help restrain him. As soon as it was all over he was all smiles while eating his otter pop. Then we took him to get that burrito he wanted.

For the next few days it was extremely hard to keep a very active kid from his daily physical activities. On Tuesday St Patrick's Day I took the kids to get their haircut and then we had ice cream since Matthew finally allowed someone to cut his hair without much of a fuss. Later that evening we had dinner but Matthew wasn't interested in eating. I figured we may have spoiled his dinner with the ice cream so I let the kids jump in the trampoline for a while. Mario came home from work so I went back in the house to finish my dinner. A few minutes later Mario is rushing in the house frantically asking for help. Matthew appeared to be having a seizure in his arms so I told Mario to put him on the floor and call 911. His mouth was turning blue so I rolled him on his side until the jerking and shaking had stopped. All I could think about was him having a head injury. The paramedics arrived in about two minutes and Matthew had just came out of it and asked me for some ice cream then he closed his eyes and was trying to fall a sleep. When the medics took his temperature it was 100 degrees. They loaded him up into the ambulance and started his iv. While checking his vitals they discovered his eyes having rapid movements and pupils dilating. They said it scared them a bit so they called in and was given orders to administer Ativan. They had thought he was having another seizure. The doctors are still not sure if he was though. After arriving at Children's hospital they took labs and did a CT of his head which all came back normal. The ER doctor still thought he possible fell wrong from jumping and caused the seizure.

Mario and Madison finally arrived and told me what had exactly happened in the trampoline. Matthew was jumping and fell backwards probably landing on his touche and when he stood back up Mario said his face looked like he was in pain and couldn't breath (like having the wind knocked out of you). Then he fell forward and started shaking and was unresponsive. Mario grabbed his feet and pulled him out rushing him inside the house. This is something Mario has never seen and not familiar with. All we could think about is what caused this not really knowing that he was coming down with something. They kept him in the hospital for observation and to discover he kept having fevers go up and down. He really never had any other symptoms except some constipation and loss of appetite. They attempted an EEG but no cooperation for that test. After the Neurologist had reviewed everything they had diagnosed him with Febrile Seizure. Elevated body temperature associated with a fever is believed to trigger the seizure. We were told that you don't have to have a high fever for this to happen and sometimes you might not have a fever at all when it happens. They said when a fever develops to quickly no matter how high, it can trigger the seizure in children usually under the age of 6. It is very common in children between the ages of 3m and 6yrs. It is possible for this to happen again but thankfully children grow out of it by the age of 6. It is also possible he may never have to experience this again. I always thought a seizure was triggered only with high fevers so this never crossed my mind especially when he wasn't showing any real signs of being sick. We are just thankful that this wasn't something more serious like a head injury or a disease. We are also thankful that this happened inside the trampoline instead of somewhere else where he could have collapsed and hit his head.

Matthew is back to his normal self and hasn't had a fever since last night. Today he saw his pediatrician and she removed his stitches and swabbed his throat for strep since it looked a bit red. The culture came back normal and Matthew seems very healthy and happy. Madison had a bit of a scare that night as well and couldn't stop crying. I tried to talk to her letting her know that Matthew was going to be just fine. She brought a picture she drew for Matthew to the hospital to give to him but he was pretty knocked out. We asked her if she wanted to leave it with him but she wanted to give it to him while he was awake. She was very worried about him and wanted to see him awake the next day. She is such a caring, loving big sister and always wants to take care of him.