October 7, 2011
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True Fear
My daughter had a seizure yesterday.
If you’ve never actually seen one in person, well, it’s very scary. The entire body goes limp and start shaking violently for about 1-2 minutes.
After that she was breathing extremely shallow and turned ashen gray. We were out and my wife called me over right away. It’s hard to describe the feeling when you are holding your completely limp, ashen, 2-year old daughter. She was completely unresponsive. Scary. Very scary.
My wife quickly explained what had happened and how she saw her drop to the ground. I felt a sort of dichotomy, where half of me was dad and the other half was ER doctor. I could feel her heartbeat racing rapidly and she still was breathing slowly. She felt warm to me and I figured she had just had a febrile seizure, yet with my limp daughter still in my arms, I was panicking.
We called 911 and the first responder came. By that time my daughter had regained some level of consciousness and her color had returned. Went to the ER and her temp was 104.6, which, according to all my medical training, is considered above average.
After a slew of tests and some tylenol and motrin she was doing much better, eating/drinking and watching TV.
But…
Scary.
Nerve wracking.
Terrifying.
I have long said that I can handle the 82 year-old that comes into the ER who is dead or receiving resuscitation. It is the sick little kids that have always and will always scare the living crap out of you as an ER doc.
Currently she is racing around the house smiling, giggling, and just got done riding the “daddy horse” over and over and over… so shes back to baseline, much to the parents delight.
I think that was the scariest thing I have ever had happen to me in my life… how about you?
Comments (6)
I hope she is okay…. and that you find out the reason for her seizure soon and are able to treat the cause. I can’t imagine life with seizures, and I’m positive that when I’m a parent, every little thing will scare me.
When my son was a month old, he threw up one night shortly after he had been laid in his crib. His mother immediately got up and discovered that he had clogged his nose and couldn’t breathe. She worked on him with an ear bulb (which we always kept around, fortunately) while I called 911. I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t had an ear bulb.
Yes True Fear all right. It is amazing how fast kids recover from stuff and on the other hand, our hearts don’t just stop from all the panic, worry and fear.
I can only imagine the amount of panic that pulsed through your body. Just simply reading your experience was heart wrenching. I am so relieved that your daughter is ok.
I don’t have children of my own, but when I do, I hope that I am as clear conscienced as you were. At least enough to get to the phone.
Prayers for you and your family.
I can’t help but wonder what caused it. I pray it never happens to her again.
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