Our Big Scare

Before you read this, I will let you know that Mia is better now and is back to her normal happy self! I wanted to tell you that before you read because what we went through with her was very scary......

Last week, Mia was doing great! She was playing with all her new birthday presents and using lots of her new "words". Mia had her 12 months well baby check up on Feb 10th and all was great. She got her scheduled immunizations and was doing fine. On Thursday morning, she was a little bit fussy when going down for her morning nap, but was fine in the afternoon. She went out to lunch with her Daddy, Uncle Kevin and Kaiya, and Uncle Huntskies (Chris Hunter) and her boyfriend, Dylan. According to Dan, she was happy and playing with Dylan throughout lunch. When they got home, Dan put her down for her afternoon nap. She woke up 20 minutes into her nap screaming. I picked her up and rocked her in her glider and she fell right back to sleep. I rocked her for 45 minutes and I noticed she was breathing really fast. The nurse in me kicked in and I started monitoring her respiratory status- she was breathing 48-52 breaths per minute (normal would be somewhere in the 20s to low 30s). I listened with my stethoscope and everything sounded fine, but when I touched her chest, she was buring up. This was Mia's first fever and it was a good one...103 degrees. I gave her Tylenol and called and told work that Mia was sick so I would not be coming in that night. Her fever slowly came down, but was still 100.5 2 hours after the Tylenol. At that point, I gave her Motrin to help bring down the fever. Two hours later, she was finally down to 100 degrees and was acting normal and playing with her toys. She went to sleep at 8:30, but woke up crying at 9:30 and her temp was back up to 101, so we gave her more Tylenol and put her in our bed so we could keep a close eye on her. At 10:30, her temp was up to 102, but it was too early to give more Motrin or Tylenol so we stripped off her jammies and had her sleep in a diaper without any blankets. She was fussy over the next few hours and I got up to give her more Motrin at 12:45 since that was the earliest she could have it. I got everything ready for her and Dan sat her up in bed so we could give it to her. At this point, our nightmare began...

As Dan held Mia up, her head flopped back, her eyes rolled up, and she began to seize. For about 30 seconds, Dan and my world came to a standstill as we watched our unresponsive baby shake uncontrollably! I immediately called 911 and Dan just held Mia close. After the 30 second seizure, Mia was limp for about 5 minutes. I was able to get tylenol in her once she awoke. The ambulance came and we arrived at the Sutter Roseville ER at around 1:30 am. Her temp was 103.4 when we arrived and her heart rate was 180-190! The staff in the ER were awesome (I think I might have mentioned in the past that I am convinced Sutter provides the absolute best healthcare in the region...I know I am biased...but it is TRUE!) After urine tests, blood tests, and a chest x-ray, they really couldn't find a real source for her fever. The only strange thing was that she had a large red welt on her right thigh which had not been there earlier in the night. Mia got a dose of IV rocephin (an antibiotic) and Zofran (an antiemetic to prevent her from puking up her motrin). When we left the ER at 5 am, Mia's temp was down to 100.3 and her heart rate down to 110-120s.

We went to see Mia's pediatrician, Dr. Sorgea, at 11:30 in the morning so she could follow up on Mia's condition. Mia's fever was still down at that point and she was starting to perk up a little bit. Dr Sorgea's diagnosis shocked me, but totally makes sense. Apparently, with the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine, reactions can occur 10 days after the immunization is given. The combination of the fever and the large welt on her thigh where the vaccine had been administered led her to this diagnosis...she is so smart! I had just assumed that it didn't have anything to do with the vaccines because I was unaware of this delayed reaction. Another interesting thing that we learned when talking to Grandma Sandy was that Dan had a similar experience when he was around Mia's age. He also had a high fever and had a febrile seizure after his immunizations! Like father, like daughter...apparently they have even more in common that we thought!!

When we got back home, Mia's fever returned and we battled the fever from 12:30pm until 2:30 am. The Tylenol and Motrin helped to keep the temperature from going too high, but we also had to put her in the bathtub to cool her down at one point when the medications weren't working and we had to use wet wash clothes at another point.

So where are we now...
Mia has not had a fever for 36 hours, so we think we are through the woods. Now we all, mostly Dan and I, and totally exhausted and need to catch up on our sleep. It has been a VERY LONG few days! We are just so, so thankful that our baby Mia is OK and back to her happy, cheerful, playful self!