Leila

Well, March is here... and since it's been warm and sunny these past few days, I guess we have to admit that it arrived "like a lamb".

The kids and I had a quiet weekend home, without Jon. He's working seven days a week now, till the line they're working on is finished.

He did ask to get this coming Saturday off, so he can bring Michael to the next phase of his Knowledge Contest, in Plover. I was planning on bringing Michael myself, but Jon thinks the long drive and early registration hour (we have to register at 9 am, and it's several hours away from here) would make for too hard a day for the other kids.

He'd come home for a very short visit last Monday...


The kids had been home from school for about half an hour. We had neighbor kids over, as well. Leila was riding around the house on her little yellow car from Susan.

She "drove" into the office, where Michael and Daken were playing a game on the computer. Without a sound, she slipped off the yellow car and fell to the floor.

Michael thought she was playing and didn't take much note of what happened. But Emma came in the room and immediately saw something was wrong. She picked Leila up and yelled for me.

Leila was having a seizure again.

This had happened once before, about six months ago. But since that had been diagnosed as a febrile seizure (fever-related), I thought it was going to be a one-time event.

I held Leila in my arms, and the seizure went on another 45 seconds (or so) longer. Then she came out of it, but was still not herself. She was dazed and her head kept drooping over. Her eyes were out of focus and, most alarmingly, her lips were tinged with blue.

The other time Leila'd had a seizure, Jon was home too. This time it was just me (and the older kids).

I called the neighbor lady I walk with, and she came over right away. While she helped me find Leila's coat and things (my brain was going numb and I was starting to cry), she sent Daken and Michael up the hill to fetch her sister Johnne. Candy then drove us in to the hopsital, while Johnne stayed home with the older kids.

On the way over, I had a hard time keeping Leila awake. She kept wanting to nod off to sleep, and I wasn't sure if I should let her do that. So I sat by her and patted her face, and talked to her.

On the drive over I called Jon and let him know what was going on.

We were lucky to arrive at ER during a slow time, so were seen right away. They took Leila's temperature and confirmed that she had a low fever... 102 degrees. But that appeared to be her only symptom of illness (other than the seizure). They checked her blood and urine for infection, but there was none.

They concluded that she'd been fighting off some kind of virus, which sometimes results in fever. They believe her fever caused the seizure. Some children are more susceptible to that than others.

She may never have another one... or it might happen again.

Apparently 1 in 25 young children has febrile seizures. If a child has a seizure, there's a 30% chance she may have another. The thing to do is lay her on her side, keep things out of her mouth, and make sure she doesn't fall or hurt herself. Then give her fever reducer and get her temp back to normal.

Jon couldn't stay away. He came home within an hour of our arriving back from the hospital. He wanted to see for himself that Leila was alright. And by the time he came home, she was-- maybe a little sleepy-eyed and fragile-looking in her footed pajamas-- but much more like her normal, smiley self.

We checked on her through the night, but her fever stayed down and she slept peacefully. At 10 am, after lots of kisses and hugs from Leila, Jon headed back to Iowa.

And once again I find myself grateful for those simple, basic things that make life happy... like having your child be healthy. And knowing that concerned friends and family are there to help out when you really need them. That's what it's really all about. Anything extra is a bonus.