Be Still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

I am so happy to report that Avery is feeling much better...she is still a little tired, but getting close to her normal self.

For those who haven't heard the whole story, here goes:

Sunday nite, about 7:45, I put Davis in the bath. Avery went to rock in the recliner with Nick and began acting disoriented and got really stiff. She has had a febrile seizure before (see definition below), so we knew we needed to get to the hospital immediately. We jumped in the car and drove to the fire department about 2 miles away. Nick called 911 on the way and the ambulance planned to meet us there. The seizure started in the car and lasted through the trip to the fire station, while she was getting treatment from the paramedics, and on to the E.R. In all, it was the most terrifying, helpless, 45 minutes of my life. Watching my baby girl so out of control like that and not being able to help her was horrible. I just prayed and prayed and prayed and held her hand when I could and told her Mommy and Daddy were there.
Since it took so long to get her stabilized, she aspirated (on her saliva) on her left lung. This was a major concern, as was the fact she had been given so much sedative. This had relaxed her muscles so much that she could have had to be put on a ventilator to keep her heart from stopping. We knew we had to get her to Children's Hospital Shelby was NOT equipped to deal with small children. She was med-flighted about 11p.m.. Children's ran ct scans, did xrays, checked blood cultures, monitored everything, and found nothing wrong. She did have an ear infection, which we did not know, that must have caused her fever to spike and start the seizure. Avery finally came out of it about 4 a.m. Hearing her wake up and in her sweet little voice say "Mommy, I need my blankie," is a moment I will never forget. We just take for granted that our kids are healthy. All I could think about when she was unconscious was how I would not let her have candy for Supper, so she wouldn't eat. It was the scariest thing I have ever had to go through as a parent. The only way Nick and I made it through without losing our minds was prayer, our friends, and the little bit of knowledge we had about seizures.

SO: If you have small children or are around them often, please take the time to read below. You could possibly save someone's life bv recognizing symptoms and taking appropriate actions. And please if there is any way possible, take your kids to a CHILDREN'S Hospital if they need medical attention.

Febrile Seizures

Sometimes a child will have a seizure during the course of an illness with a high fever. These seizures are called febrile seizures (febrile is derived from the Latin word for "fever") and can be very alarming to the parents and other caregivers. In the past, doctors usually prescribed a course of anticonvulsant drugs following a febrile seizure in the hope of preventing epilepsy. However, most children who have a febrile seizure do not develop epilepsy, and long-term use of anticonvulsant drugs in children may damage the developing brain or cause other detrimental side effects. Experts at a 1980 consensus conference coordinated by the National Institutes of Health concluded that preventive treatment after a febrile seizure is generally not warranted unless certain other conditions are present: a family history of epilepsy, signs of nervous system impairment prior to the seizure, or a relatively prolonged or complicated seizure. The risk of subsequent non-febrile seizures is only 2 to 3 percent unless one of these factors is present.

Generalized Seizures

Generalized seizures are a result of abnormal neuronal activity on both sides of the brain. These seizures may cause loss of consciousness, falls, or massive muscle spasms.

There are many kinds of generalized seizures. In absence seizures, the person may appear to be staring into space and/or have jerking or twitching muscles. These seizures are sometimes referred to as petit mal seizures, which is an older term. Tonic seizures cause stiffening of muscles of the body, generally those in the back, legs, and arms. Clonic seizures cause repeated jerking movements of muscles on both sides of the body. Myoclonic seizures cause jerks or twitches of the upper body, arms, or legs. Atonic seizures cause a loss of normal muscle tone. The affected person will fall down or may drop his or her head involuntarily. Tonic-clonic seizures cause a mixture of symptoms, including stiffening of the body and repeated jerks of the arms and/or legs as well as loss of consciousness. Tonic-clonic seizures are sometimes referred to by an older term: grand mal seizures.

Not all seizures can be easily defined as either focal or generalized. Some people have seizures that begin as focal seizures but then spread to the entire brain. Other people may have both types of seizures but with no clear pattern