A Night of Pain and Revelation

Last night was the scariest night of my life.

If you are thinking horror movie, or super thriller movie forget it. This is more like, sad and depressing feel depressed at the end of watching movie. Except this was real. And painful.

I came home last night to a wife who could hardly walk (back pain) and a son with a fever. It had been really hard to tell that Edmund was feverish because his skin had been hot all day. We thought it was just the fact that our AC went out but when the AC was fixed, the skin didn't change so we started to give him some medicine. Turns out we started a little late.

As Edmund's health started to deteriorate, Krystle decided I should take him into the shower to cool him off. I thought it had worked because he was laughing and having a good time. I even got him to drink some of the cool water. When I got him out of the shower he was trembling with cold and I got him wrapped up and ready for his bedtime clothes. After I put his diaper and pants on, he fell from his sitting position on the bed onto his back on the bed and started to tremble uncontrollably. I was terrified.

If you have never seen anyone have a seizure before, it is not fun. Their eyes glaze over and their jaw clenches...it is just not a very pretty sight. As I watched Edmund's color drain from his already fair skin, I started to panic. Krystle grabbed him and held him close to her talking to him. I ran around frantically trying to get clothes on for a trip to the hospital. The next few minutes were a complete blur but I can remember looking at his little face and thinking that I was losing my son. He only stopped breathing for a very small period of time before Krystle had him breathing again. I raced around trying to get everyone ready for the emergency room. Within a total of four minutes: Edmund had his seizure, we got dressed and we got processed into a room at the local ER. This was 11:30 at night. By 3:30 we were on our way home.

It turns out that Edmund had a Feberal Seizure which effects 1 in 7 children in their lives. The siezure is triggered by very high fevers. Edmund's temperature at the hospital (after the seizure had occurred and after his bare chest had been exposed to the cool mountain air) was 103.9. An hour later he was already in the low 101 zone after recieving doses of both Tylenol and Ibuprofren. He was given an IV (in what was probably the most traumatic experience of the night for him) and peed on me twice in the 2 hours before we left the hospital.

This had to have been the longest 4 hours of my life. But Edmund was and is still fine. He is still getting medicine and I still have my little guy around. I can't say how many times I thought that he was going to die or slip into a coma or a million other bad things. It scared me. When it turned out he was alright, the relief hit me like a truck and caused me to cry like a baby giving thanks to God for deliverance.

But here is the revelation. Without this experience would I have ever looked at my ability and involvement as a father? I have to admit when I saw him lying on that bed in the hospital I couldn't help but think of the time earlier in the evening when I turned down the opportunity to play fire-fighter to do who knows what else. The point is, I realized how precious our time was together. I thanked God for that as well last night.

I also thanked God that Edmund was with us when this happened and not in his bed by himself. I thanked God for the strength he gave Krystle to make it to the hospital. I thanked God for the hospital staff which was awesome (except for the X Ray tech who acted like we just ruined his evening by making him work). And once again I thanked God for my son who I treasure with my heart.