Trip to the Emergency Room

For those of you that don't know a week ago this past Sunday Lucy had a seizure and was taken by ambulance to Children's Hospital. We had just gotten back from our ski trip and she had been running a temp for several hours. We noticed that she felt a little warm around four o'clock that afternoon but she was resting well so we didn't think much about it. When we got home (around eight o'clock) we laid her in her crib so that she could continue to rest. I went to check on her about 9:15 and she was burning up so I brought her into the living room to take her temperature and it was 104 and then 105 a few minutes later. I got on the phone with Josh's Mom and she told me to try and cool her down by giving her a bath in luke warm water. While I was running the water Lucy started to have a seizure. I immediately got on the phone with 911 and within 3-4 minutes the paramedics arrived. By that time I think the worst of the seizure was over but Lucy still wasn't acting like herself. The paramedics reassured us that her color looked good, she was breathing well and that seizures due to high temperatures are actually quite common but they suggested that we go ahead and take her to the hospital to have her checked out. She was still acting a little strange so we decided to have EMS take her by ambulance to Children's Hospital. Once we got there the doctor confirmed that it had most likely been a febrile seizure (caused by a virus and a high fever that spikes quickly) After doing several tests to make sure that there was nothing else going on they sent us home and said that it would take a couple of days for the virus to run its course.

Souvenir from the ambulance ride...

Her hospital bracelet from the emergency room...

We are so thankful that it was nothing serious and Lucy is doing fine! Looking back I wish I had known more about febrile seizures before it happened. It still would have been a scary experience but we might have been able to avoid a trip to the emergency room. If you are a Mom with small children I recommend that you read up on febrile seizures so that you can be prepared if it ever happens to your kids. I found a really good article on the subject. Go to http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sick/febrile.html