Becoming His 31: February 2019

Family

As a little prologue to this post... just last week I was considering writing a post about all that we've done to stay healthy this cold + flu season because it really seemed to be working! We were so sick last year so this year I implemented some immune boosting/protecting routines to help us stay healthy and we had only had 1 minor case of sniffles all winter! I thought we were golden!

Until Tuesday.

So now I'm glad I didn't write the post because I would've looked like a fool. *face palm*

Okay. Onto the post.

Tuesday morning started off just like all of our other Tuesdays; We headed to spend the day at Grammie's for our "Kessler Tuesday." The day my sister and I spend with my mom either doing our shopping or just hanging out. I noticed Lilly was a little emotional that morning with her demanding "Mine!" and wanting everything sissy had while we were getting ready to go, but really I just thought it was part of her new "I'm a two year old" attitude that she's been working on. I didn't consider that it might be because she wasn't feeling well until much later. She might have been cranky but I was in a good mood because it was a rare warm day in February and we were going to spend a lot of time outside! When we got to my moms we did our usual chatting, catching up for a bit while the girls had a snack, and then we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.

We were probably only on the walk for about 20 minutes. Lilly was sitting nicely in the stroller the whole time, not saying much but about 5 minutes before we got back to the house she pointed out a doggie barking in someone's back yard. When we turned back on to my mom's street I playfully tipped the stroller backwards and wiggled it a bit. I saw her grab the sides but didn't hear any usual giggles so I put the stroller down. I thought it was weird she didn't think it was funny like she usually did and suddenly thought to myself about her extra emotions this morning; I made a comment to my mom about how I hoped she wasn't getting sick. I reached down to feel her forehead but it didn't feel that warm to me so I kept chatting with my mom and Erin until I pushed the stroller up into the driveway. I say all this just to point out how quickly she went from pointing out doggies to what I found when I walked around to get her out of the stroller. Her face was white, her eyes were glazed over and she wouldn't respond to anything I said. I quickly pulled her out of the stroller and took her inside my parents house to try and figure out what was going on. I kept talking to her, asking her to look at mama or say "mama" to see if she would respond to me. A couple of times she turned her eyes towards me and for a brief moment she tried really hard to say mama but couldn't get any sound to come out. My mom handed me the thermometer I had asked her for and I started to take her temperature when I decided it didn't matter what her fever was I just needed to get her to an urgent care because I didn't like what was happening. My mom hopped in the van with me while Reag stayed at the house with Erin. I'm actually glad we were all together when it happened so I could leave Reag with someone and not have to get her ready to come with me. Poor Reag asked me what was happening in the middle of all of it and I told her not to worry and to go ask Aunt Sara to put a show on for her. I'm thankful for the way she's matured in the last year. She didn't get upset and just did what I asked her to do.

We got to patient first and the registration nurse could see how poor Lilly looked so she took us right back before we even officially checked in. Within 2 minutes there was a doctor and a few nurses checking her out. Her temperature was 105.3 and her respiratory rate was 229. They quickly gave her a Tylenol suppository to bring her fever down. The doctor felt her head while they were checking her out and made a comment about how she definitely didn't feel like she had a 105 degree temperature. She slowly started to become more alert as we sat there while they swabbed her throat and nose and pricked her finger for a blood test. It took her another 15 minutes or so before she started to vocalize anything again; it was just her and I in the room waiting for the nurse to come back and I was singing baby shark to her when she said "do, do, do, do, do." I laughed as she tried to sing along in a low, scratchy voice and was just so relieved that she seemed to be coming back around. They ended up taking a chest X-ray as well, but in the end couldn't find any reason for her high fever so they sent us to the ER at the Children's Hospital.

My mom drove with us over to the hospital and Lilly fell asleep on the way there. Mark met us there and then my mom took my van back to the house. We were triaged pretty quickly because Lilly still had a decent fever even with having Tylenol. They treated her with Motrin and took some more tests. The Dr. was highly suspicious that she'd had a febrile seizure. He was questioning me about what had happened and I was hesitant at first to agree with him. My brother Adam has seizures regularly so I'm really familiar with what they look like and her reaction didn't resemble anything I've seen from him. I guess I was also trying not to over react to what had happened and was hesitant to say that she definitely had a seizure because she never had any convulsions. Her shaking was more like a full body shivering, not violent shaking. But going back over everything, and listening to the doctor explain more about febrile seizures it appears that's what happened.

Again, all the tests came back negative but because she had recently been exposed to someone who had a confirmed case of the flu they determine the cause of her fever was likely the flu. She did end up vomiting once at Patient First and once at the ER as well and that helped them confirm their diagnosis. By the time we were discharged she was fully aware and just exhausted from the afternoon.

They sent us home with Tamiflu.

Lilly's 2 year old check up is coming up in a few weeks and I plan to talk with her pediatrician about what to do in the case of another sudden fever spike and unresponsive or febrile seizure state. This happened to her last year while we were at the beach. She had a high fever and became unresponsive in a similar way. I'm thinking now this is just how her body responds to high fevers and wondering if there are steps to take at home instead of rushing to the ER. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Anways... we ended up having to spend the warmest week of February stuck inside with a a 2 year old who had the flu and everything that came along with it. Thankfully the first 24-48 hours were the worst and after that she just had her fever to battle. We ate a lot of Popsicles, took a lot of baths, watched a lot of movies, and read a lot of books.

I only let them play with a handful of toys that I kept out in the living room and wiped them down every night to disinfect. I quarantined Reaghan's room and Lilly was not allowed in! Lilly slept with me on the couch the first night because she was getting sick but after that she slept in her crib and I changed her sheets every morning and sprayed disinfectant on the couch every night. I kept her toothbrush separate from Reaghan's. We doubled up on our elderberry gummies and syrup. I tried so hard to prevent any germs from spreading, but unfortunately Reaghan and I both ended up with fevers yesterday afternoon! Thankfully Reaghan has been acting herself and hasn't had any other symptoms. I have a weird cough and sore throat but my fever only lasted through the night. Lilly woke up today fever free for the first time since Tuesday so prayerfully we will all be healthy by the start of next week! Being stuck at home with sick toddlers can be mentally challenging and I don't know if I can take another week of it! We are bummed to be missing our Worship Night at church tonight and church tomorrow morning, but we are trying to keep our germs home until we are fully better!

I am praising God that He answered my prayers to keep my other family members healthy that we were around Tuesday morning. Especially my 7 month old nephew Blake. I was so worried we were going to be the start of a little flu epidemic in our family!

Praise Jesus for the little blessings in the midst of a toddler flu!

Before Reaghan's fever struck she got to enjoy some outside time in the warm weather by herself - eating snacks on the back deck and reading books while I was inside with Lilly. We did get to spend a little time outside together while Lilly was napping, which helped refresh me mentally!

**Also... do me a favor and check out the time I took my DOG into the emergency vet. Note the part at the end when I say one day I might just put a puking dog outside and not blink an eye while I take care of my future babies. HA! That could not have been a more accurate prediction. Did Mark and I really take our puppy to the doggie ER because she was throwing up?!

*face palm, face palm, face palm*

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