Our Brave Little Girl--Sorry Long Post

Some of you may have already heard about our very scary day with Caroline, but for those that have not let me share with you our last few days. Caroline began running a fever on Sunday, and it continued through Monday. Her fever was peaking at about 101.9, and she had no other symptoms. Needless to say, we weren't terribly concerned. Monday she woke up from her afternoon nap, and her lips were a little purple as were her finger nails. At that point, I thought we might as well take her to the doctor to check for an ear infection or a UTI.

The doctor examined her, and all the normal places to see an infection were clear, so he asked us to come by the next morning so they could get urine to test for an infection. We left thinking everything was okay at that point.

Not even ten minutes later, I turned around in the car to check on Caroline, and her lips were dark purple and she wasn't breathing. We pulled over immediately and realized she was having a seizure. She was conscious but unresponsive. We rushed to the emergency room where I absolutely lost all composure with the woman at the front desk. Through my gushing tears, I explained what had happened and a nurse came to see us right away.

We sat in the exam room and watched helplessly as the nurses put an IV in Caroline's arm, attached a bunch of sensors, and tried unsuccessfully to put in a catheter. Caroline was completely hysterical which, for those of you who know her, is so uncharacteristic of her. When we arrived at the ER her normal heart rate of about 130 had climbed to about 220. This was very scary for us because our medical expertise comes from the show House.

Afterall of the monitoring, they determined that Caroline had a febrile seizure which is basically a fever-induced seizure. We left the hospital at about 9:30pm (we had been there since 5:30), and Caroline's temperature had gone down. We went to bed when we got home only to wake up to Caroline crying at 1am. We took her temperature, and it was 103.1. As I took her temperature, she began throwing up. We immediately went back to the ER to be on the safe side. When we arrived they took her temperature, and it was now at 105.7. Thankfully, she did not have another seizure. They monitored her and gave her medicine to reduce the fever, and we left at 3am.

We are still waiting on results from her lab work to tell us if she has a bacterial infection or just a plain old virus. Unfortunately, if it is a virus there is nothing we can do but manage the fever. The pediatrician told us that her seizure was completely related to the fever and in no way means that she will have problems with seizures in the future. We just know now that her threshold for fever is low.

This experience showed us so much how in control God is of the details. Thanks to the generosity of my sister and brother-in-law, we had a forward facing car seat for Caroline. I wouldn't have been able to see her otherwise. Another detail that did not escape my attention was the fact that Frank was there with me. I have been so frustrated lately about the fact that we only have one car, and I often am left alone without a car. If Frank hadn't come home to take me and Caroline to the doctor's office, I would have been alone when all of this happened. God is in complete control of our lives. Frank and I are so thankful to the Lord that what happened was not more serious. Thank you all of your prayers.

These are some pictures we took at the hospital.