A First and Hopefully a Last

Last night Taylor and I had a first and it better be our last. We got to ride in an ambulance to the emergency room of the hospital in nearby New Brunswick NJ. Yesterday Taylor had 2 shots - HIB and tetanus. She was fine the rest of the day....her normal happy self. Around 8:00pm as I was rocking her she felt a little warm but not alarmingly warm that would make me think fever. I gave her 1/2 teaspoon of Children's Tylenol as the doctor said I should do the last time she had shots. Two minutes later as I was back rocking her she had a seizure. Scared the living daylight out of me as I wasn't sure what was going on. Called 911 and they arrived very quickly. By this time the seizure had stopped and Taylor was breathing. She still wasn't responding to me. Quickly let everyone in and handed Taylor over to them. That was when I became calm...wasn't prior to that. She was awake and breathing normally and just watching everyone and probably wondering what was going on. We went to the hospital and the wonderful nurses and doctor there took such great care of us. She had a febrile seizure which is brought on by the spike in temperature which was brought on by the shots in particular the tetanus shot. After about 1 hour and a nice dose of Motrin we were discharged. My wonderful neighbors Patty and Robin came to pick us up. While we were waiting, the Taylor I have known and loved for the past 3 months came back....laughing, playing around, goofing around. She had Hi's for Patty and Robin when they came. She was entertaining in the car when she wasn't falling asleep and had good-byes and kisses when we got home. She was asleep within 1 minute of me putting her to bed. Slept through the night and was fine this morning.

We went to her doctor today to be checked out. We now have a plan of action the next time she needs shots and it will be one shot at a time. She won't have a full tetanus shot the next time she needs one, she will just get the PT part of it. (Can't remember what the doctor said the part was.) When she gets sick and gets a fever I have to be very diligent and watch and monitor her temperature and give tylenol or motrin as directed. This hopefully won't happen again but if it does I know what it is, what to expect and do and hopefully won't be so scared by it. Today she didn't go to school but will go back on Monday. She has been herself all day and hasn't had a fever.

I don't know what she remembers of last night but doesn't seem to have any lasting effects from it. The Sayreville first aid squad was fantastic as was the 911 operator. They got here so fast and were so good with Taylor. They even had a little stuffed toy for her in the ambulance. They were also very patient with a very scared mother.

We are heading up to Auntie Linda's tonight after dinner and a bath for the weekend. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a Happy Mother's Day to all.