Germs, Seizure, and Hospitalization

Life at the Matejka household has been one hell of a roller coaster since last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday I dropped Matthew off at my mom's house with a slight fever of 101. About an hour after arriving at work my mom called to let me know Matthew was not doing so well, so I left work, picked him up and went straight to the pediatrician's office. They tested him for both strep and flu, both came back negative. The doctor said it's a nasty virus that rears its ugly head at the beginning of summer, and that Matthew's temp would spike to 104 probably before the day was up.

I got him home and tried to get him as comfortable as possible, removing all clothing except for his diaper and put a lightweight blanket on him. He slept briefly, then I took him downstairs to change his diaper, where he shook and went into a full blown seizure. I put my finger in his mouth to stop him from biting his tongue. After what seemed an eternity, Matthew came out of the seizure. I grabbed him up, and got the phone, placed him on the sofa, and called 911 immediately. I was screaming at the dispatcher to get help to our house. She had me calm down because I had to answer some questions. She then called my neighbor Christi who came over to be with me until the ambulance arrived.

The ambulance arrived in about 15 minutes, and at this point, Matthew was in and out of consciousness. Off we went to Henrico Doctors Forest Hospital. Matthew thought the ride in the ambulance was cool, until they put electrodes on his little chest to check his heart rate, oxygen levels, etc. We got to the hospital to have his fever to continue climbing. During the time of the seizure, his fever was possibly at 105 degrees. After 6 hours in the ER, we finally got a room on the pediatrics ward. I took off home, we have a diabetic cat. I had to get Taz his shot, then I headed back to the hospital.

They catharized Matthew to see if he had a UTI, because that could send his fever soaring. They also did a CT Scan that night, because even though we could associate his seizure with a high fever, there could still be an underlying cause, such as a brain tumor. He actually thought that was cool, and his dad was with him during the whole process. I stayed a while longer, and then I took off home to get some rest. John stayed with Matthew throughout Wednesday evening.

I arrived at the hospital to relieve John and he then went home to rest. Matthew was visited by our wonderful ministers from our church. Then all hell broke loose, Matthew had an EEG, which is a brain scan to check his brain waves for epilepsy. He screamed literally for 30 minutes. He did calm down when I had the technician put the television on PBS and he watched some of Thomas the Train.

John relieved me yet again, I headed home briefly, and came back to be there with him all night long. I slept beside him on the bed all night, and when he jumped or cried, I soothed him. We were finally discharged at 3:30 pm on Friday.

Friday night we went about doing what we usually do at the house, and gave him a bath. Normalcy is important and we just wanted to try to get life back on track for the little guy. Throughout this whole ordeal, I kept my facebook page updated so friends would continually pray for us, and we heard them. Thank you so much for your kind thoughts and prayers.

Friday and Saturday night were horrible. Matthew had a real tough time sleeping, and obviously was somewhat traumatized by the whole experience. Life seems to be back on track now for him however, and we're just happy to all be healthy and home. I'm just waiting for the insurance bills to start rolling in.....sheesh.

Love to all of you!
Cindy