my little Dillon man

Yesterday morning was a scary time.  As you long-time followers know, he has had his fair share of minor(but frequent and bizarre) health struggles and developmental struggles.  Two years ago this February, he had his first febrile seizure at age 6.  He'd been super duper sick all Fri and Sat night(in fact, the very same Friday night that we read the email about a toddler boy in Korea who'd been waiting many months for a family--ended up being our sweet Hudson!).  By Sunday morning, I was kicking myself for not taking him to he hospital during the night.  That morning, I took him to our pediatrician's office for urgent clinc and his temp spiked to 104 and he had a fine red rash all over.  He seized in the waiting room and I lost it!  I thought he was dying in front of me.  I'm a critical care nurse and I worked er for 5 years--nothing could prepare me for that site!  The doctor called 911 and off we went.  We spent 2 days in the hospital thanks to bad strep.  He saw the neurologist and had an EEG since it was not normal to have your first febrile seizure at 6.  All was well.  Since then, whenever he is sick, we make him sleep on a pallet in our room so we can hear him.  I'll tell you why....When I was a new nurse, I started working at a tiny hospital.  The night charge nurse was very closed off.  One of the staff nurses told me that her 5yr old son, Asa, had died recently.  He'd had a seizure in his bed during the night and vomited, aspirated, and died.  Nobody knew.  The mom found him dead when she went to wake him up for school!!!!!!!!!  That story haunted me after Dillons seizure.
Thankfully, he never had another one.  Well......that is til yesterday morning.  Friday, I was volunteering in his class at school.  Side note here---teachers, HOLY COW, you deserve 100,000 dollars a year for your job.  I was in there 1 hour(ALONE) to teach 17 first graders.  I looked like I was herding 17 cats and I was exhausted.  Anyway, the nurse came over the speaker in that room and told me that Dillon was with her and he had fever.  I picked him up and we went home--he acted fine, asking for McDonalds!  He ran a low grade temp that afternoon, but never acted sick, nothing.  During the night, he came to our room because he'd wet the bed.  I stripped him down and put him in our bed at 4:30, since I was needing to get up at 5:15 to go to work.  I felt of him and he wasn't hot.  I was in my closet reading my daily Scripture reading when I heard Mike yelling.  I knew what it was.  He'd heard grunting noises and thought Dillon was going to vomit, but when he reached over to touch him, Dillon was seizing.  Awful site of a little body convulsing, jaw clenched and foaming at the mouth. No warning!  Thank you dear Jesus that he'd come to our bed.  The what ifs.....they make my a slave to fear and I can't live like that.  I called 911 and my sister Melody to meet us at the hospital and bring our other kids home.  I guess we shouldn't have called 911, febrile seizures are no big deal right?  I'm a critical care nurse right?  Oh well, we may have over-reacted but, Dillon is 8!!!  Kids aren't supposed to have febrile seizures at age 8.  Turns out he has strep again.  The weird thing is that when  the medics first arrived, his temp was only 100.6.  Nothing that would have made me worried.  Everyone who came to see Dillon kept asking if I'd given him anything during the night for fever.  NO, he wasn't running any!  The on call neurologist said that at age 8, we can't call this a febrile seizure, but it was a plain seizure.  He needs an outpatient EEG and we will see our old neurologist for follow up.  Here's what my sister-in-law, Shana, and I think:  Dillon's body is tiny-the size of a 6 yr old.  His development is not an 8yr old.  So, we are thinking that it was just a febrile seizure and our frame of reference has to be a younger kid.  Or, I did some research on the web last night--dangerous I know--and found a discussion forum for mom's of older kids with febrile seizures.  Many of them said that there is a very small percentage of children who never outgrow them.  On kid was 12 and has them!  AHHH, what??

I have to say, I'm trying to not let the devil plant fear in my mind. I mean, if real seizures is a possibility, how do I ever leave him and feel comfortable?  Will he sleep with us from now on?  What about our dream of moving to Nicarauga for missions? Ridiculous.

Dillon loves firemen and firetrucks.  Poor thing doesn't remember that a firetruck was in front of our house.  Mike will take him to visit the station in a few days.  He will love that!