I think I'll be writing here more often starting now. It's really the best way for me to remember all the going-ons in my daughters lives, facebook was just too easy to post pictures.
Anyways, it's May now. Time just flew by. Bria turned one already, and we had a big party for her at Little Quiapo filipino restaurant. There was a buffet, a bubbleologist, we made a year in review video presentation, Maxine entertained us with her singing (which was so nice that she sang our family's special song, Somewhere Out There), we had a pretty cake (vegan cake), and gave away M&Ms with Bria's face on them.
On her actual birthday, we had taken them to the allergist to get their eczema checked out. Bella was getting tested for food and environmental allergies. She got 40 pricks, and so far we know she's allergic to cats. Bria got tested also, because what we had thought was eczema was actually an allergic reaction to eggs. So she got 8 pricks, and is allergic to eggs, peanuts, and fish. To what degree she is allergic to each, we don't know. We'll find out when she's older.
Bria does walk now, a little wobbly, starting on her 13 month bday. She still does all her tricks, beautiful eyes, flying kiss, close open. She sleeps by herself and sucks her thumb. And she's small, in the 10th percentile... which is really cute. She eats alot though. We did have to bring her back to basic foods to weed out any other allergies. So she's still a little limited on what we give her, but she eats alot of what we do give her.
Anyways, this week was a nightmare. Not sure what it was about my kids and the 13th month. As you can recall, Bella was hospitalized at Makati Med in the Philippines with respiratory problems in 2007, which I thought was a nightmare then.
Last Friday, was a regular Friday. I came home from work, and Mark went to work. The night before, Bria felt a little warm, so without taking her temperature we just gave her tylenol. Not knowing that Bria was still sick in the morning (apparently Mark took her temp - 100 and gave her more tylenol), I did more morning routine of trying to sleep. Thankfully I had taped some shows the night before, so I decided to watch that instead of sleep right away. Bria was awake already, so she just played. When Bella woke up, we were all just chilling on the couch. All of a sudden Bria started to shiver. I thought she was cold, so I went upstairs with her to get socks and a sweatshirt. We went back down and I watched her a little bit, but her teether were chattering, she was shivering more. I called Mark, who decided to call our doctor. As we waited for her response, I called my brother and told him about the chills. The first thing he thought of, the last thing I thought of, was is she having seizures. This was definitely not seizures. I ended up swaddling her in a blanket, and we sat and waited. I thought maybe she was hungry, thirsty. Then I thought, maybe she had a fever? So I gave her milk and applesauce and tylenol. Still shivering, and Bella now telling me she wanted to go upstairs to take a nap, I brought the group upstairs. Bria still swaddled, we laid in bed for a second when suddenly she sounded like she was choking, gagging (hard to describe it), then she started to convulse. Thank goodness my brother put seizures in my mind, because I don't think in my panic I would have even thought that. I try to call 911 on my cell phone (which has a password to get in cuz Bella plays with it), but as I hold Bria in one arm and try to dial with my shaky hand, I couldn't figure out how to get passed my password (didn't even think to use the emergency dial feature). Bria still convulsing and making a weird gurgling sound, I run downstairs to get our landline and call 911. She sounded like she was choking on her tongue, so I put my finger in her mouth and she clamped down on my finger with all 4 teeth. (FYI: do not put your hand inside a seizing person's mouth). The guy on the phone calms me down, while Bria seizure slows down. When it was over, she was out of it. Eyes wide open, I directed them to look at me, but she didn't seem like she was there. She was very still, but breathing. Almost like a shock. Then she got very sleepy. The paramedics came and while they took her vital signs, I got Bella ready and all our things to go to the hospital. Got in the ambulance (which Bella calls the firetruck... which she really enjoyed going in), and off to Condell.
At Condell, we took lab test, etc. Everything checked out as fine, with the exception of WBC on the border, my doctor gave her iv cephalosporin, and we were discharge a few hours later. A little troubling at the hospital is that they didn't give my daughter a name wristband, and when they administered the medicine, there was now name check to iv bag. tsk tsk tsk.... quality assurance problems. From the hospital, I called work to get off that night, but nope, I had to go to work... whatever.
So we get home. Mark rushed out of work to get to the hospital, but once he brought us home, he rushed back to work. I figured everything would be ok. The kids were playing and I was lying down on the couch, then I fell asleep... oops! Woke up, I could here Bella, but not Bria. As I groggily got up, I asked Bella, where's Bria? She yells, "UPSTAIRS!" I bolted up and looked at the stairs and there's Bria hanging out on our middle landing. I grab the crazy dare devil and we just hang out in the family room. All of sudden she starts to chill again. I give her motrin, try to cool her off, but the shaking feeling was too familiar. I call Mark and just tell to get home now, and I call the ER to let them what was going on. But they just say the same thing, alternate that tylenol and motrin and put her in a tepid bath. I get off the phone, start wiping her down, and she starts to convulse again. This time I knew what to do. Lay her on her side, which this time she did foam at the mouth, and just wait it out. When it was all done, I called our MD, and I also tried to call the APN at the hospital, but they wouldn't let me talk to her that time. Mark came home, and we were getting ready to go back to the hospital, when our MD called back and said just to stay home and keep the temp down by alternating the meds. The problems is that the temp is down, it spikes up during the chilling - seizure episodes and remains after.
I call my dad to sleepover in case there's a problem. Then I go to work. After midnight, I call home to see what's going on, and she had another seizure. 3 in one day.... totally sucks. Apparently Mark really stepped up during that 3rd seizure. My dad (the doctor) was holding her when she started to seize, then he looks at Mark (the business guy) and asks if they should go to the ER. Mark takes Bria and just starts cooling her off until the seizures stops and fever goes down. When I heard that, I was so proud of Mark. He can remain cool, calm, and collect during high pressure times, especially since I'm totally a wreck. Plus I'm sure for my dad to see his granddaughter going through that is pretty scary.
So many things have happened this weak. We are now at day 7 and she still has a fever. We almost had 2 seizures we were able to stop. She had the chilling thing with lips and fingers turning blue. We've been to her MD, dad called a friend of his for a second opinion (and he was able to actually look at her original labs), and after her last chill episode, I got fed up and just brought her to St. Joe's ER. We've switched her antibiotics once already. Her last chest x-ray may have shown the presence of pneumonia, but her labs were all clear. It seems like she's a pretty health normal baby... with fever spikes out of the blue which may lead to febrile seizures. Mark and I have been on our toes ever since Friday. She goes from absolutely no fever all day to a couple fever spikes at night. We still give her tylenol and motrin q 3 hours, with or without a fever. If we are a late an hour, her fever goes up. Looks like this is all viral, which fevers can present 10-12 days... if she had a low-grade fever for 10-12 days, I would be ok with that. But we are talking, random fever spikes cuzing urgent attention to sponge bathe her down, or she has a higher possibility for febrile seizures.
All I can say is I can't wait until this nightmare is over. I want my baby to be happy again, and selfishly want Mark and I and the rest of the family that we wake up in the middle of the night with phone calls to get some sleep.
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