Just The Facts, Ma'am

This post is not going to be witty. Or well organized. Or grammatically correct. I just wanted to let you all know what is going on over here-today has been insane.

First, we found out Hubby had to work this morning, rather than working his normal graveyard shift....which meant I had to reschedule my 11:20am doctor's appointment. Except that it turns out I couldn't do that, because my doc was booked until next Monday. I was NOT going to wait, so I decided to take the kids with me.

FUN.

Actually the kids were pretty good, considering that they're little kids and all. The doctor still gave me a big lecture about how it is so much easier if I don't bring my "other children". I wanted to look at him and say, "You know? You're so right! I should have let the big one watch the little one. He's 5 now, he really should be taking on more responsibility." Instead I said nothing.

Then he checked my cervix. I have not moved one single solitary centimeter. I have not effaced a fraction of one percent. All of the pain I've been having has done, literally, nothing. Talk about wanting to scream and yell and cry. It looks like this baby will be just like the other two. Lucky me that means I'll get to hang out until the 18th like this.

Because I took the car (so that I could get all of us to the doctor's office) that meant that I had to go pick Hubby up from work. First I cruised by the house, let Baby Bug take an hour nap while I logged my complaint about unproductive labor into Twitter, and then we ran off to grab Daddy. Everything was fine. Everything was great. I mean, it was a long frustrating day, but no big deal. Hubby always makes me feel better.

After picking Hubby up, we ran into the store to grab a gallon of milk and Hubby mentioned that Baby Bug was acting weird. I told him that I'd awakened her in the middle of a nap and he said, "Oh, that must be it."

Then we drove home. We were literally in our driveway when I turned around to tell Monkey something (I have no idea what) and I saw that Baby Bug had turned blue all around her mouth and hands, and was convulsing. Her eyes were rolled back into her head and she was entirely unresponsive. We dashed her into the house and called 911. Her seizure lasted two whole minutes this time, and afterwards she was still not responding to her name and she wasn't lifting her left arm.

The paramedics came, and Baby Bug and I went by ambulance to our hospital (Hubby and Monkey followed). Her fever (which was literally non existant an hour before) was 104.8 and her pulse was well over 210bpm. She was still mostly unresponsive, and still not using her left arm.

I was hysterical. I didn't even have the ability to go into The Mommy Zone-I just bawled my eyes out. Hubby, as always, was the rock of the entire situation while they poked and prodded and hooked Baby Bug up to about a thousand monitors. They filled her to her eyeballs with medications...and then we waited.

After about two hours, her fever came down to 101.5 and she returned to normal once again. As far as they could tell, she didn't sustain any type of permanent damage from the seizure, thank God. The bad news is that they determined it was another febrile siezure, which means she did in fact have an infection (this time it was a UTI). They said that since this has happened again, it is very likely that she will continue to have febrile seizures with most if not all of her childhood infections. And since febrile seizures often occur before any other symptoms, it means that the very first indication that she is sick is likely to be a seizure. This makes me pretty much unglued. How am I supposed to help her? How am I supposed to prevent her from having seizures if I don't even know she's sick until she has one?

Where can I buy a plastic bubble?!

Hubby has remained absolutely steadfast during this whole event, and even took off work (though we certainly can't afford it) so that the kidlets I didn't have to be alone tonight. Monkey dealt with the situation well, and I am surprised but very happy that he didn't panic as is usually his tendency in stressful situations. I could not have dealt with more panic. I am exhausted. Absolutely positively exhausted to the very center of my being in every possible way-and I have completely cracked mentally and emotionally.

However the most important thing is that Baby Bug is sleeping peacefully. She is still running a 101 fever, but is on a constant med cycle that will keep it low. When we woke her up for her last dose she was happy and normal and appeared entirely healthy except for her extra pink cheeks and her hot-to-the-touch skin. She's okay. That's what matters.

I'm off to try to get some rest, even if it's not sleep. I don't know how much I'll be around in the next couple of days, but I'll keep you all updated.