Pope Pages

We had quite a scare this past weekend. On Saturday around 6 PM Addie had a seizure, but we are so thankful to report that everything is well, and our little girl is completely fine.

The whole thing is still so strange to me. Addie was doing great on Saturday. We had completed the March of Dimes “Walk for America”, did some shopping, and then headed home. Addie was happy and alert the entire time.

I put her down for a nap when we got home. She slept for over 3 hours, which is longer than usual, but I didn’t think much about it since she missed her morning nap. When she did wake up she had a fever. It was 102.8 rectally, so I took steps to lower it, and she fell back to sleep. I put her down and went outside.

I went back inside after about 10 minutes and heard a strange sound on the baby monitor. When I went to check on Addie she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes were rolled back in her head and she was jerking. I grabbed her and ran outside screaming for Dennis. I called our Dr. and told him that I thought Addie was having a seizure from a fever. He said to head to the ER.

Addie and I sat in the back seat while Dennis flew to the closest hospital, about 10 miles away. She started to turn blue around the mouth, so I gave her some CPR, then called 911 to have them alert the hospital that we were on our way.

Addie continued to seize at the ER. The staff worked furiously around her trying to bring down the fever and stop the seizure. She was having difficulty breathing, and they ended up intibating her and eventually putting her on a ventilator.

Dennis and I were by her side the entire time. There was a wonderful nurse – Ann – I’ll never forget her name. She stood by us and explained everything that was happening. I continued to stroke Addie’s head and talk to her. I don’t know if she could hear me. Was she scared? Did she hurt?

Her seizure finally stopped after what we guessed was at least 20 minutes. They decided that it would be best to life-flight her to Children’s hospital in Omaha. They were concerned that she had meningitis, and wanted Children’s to conduct a spinal tap.

Dennis and I drove to Omaha. Addie had arrived at the Pediatric intensive care unit about 35 minutes before us. Soon after we arrived Aunt Stacy and Uncle Zach and Grandma and Grandpa Pope and Grandma Linda arrived. We all waited together while they preformed a spinal tap on Addie.

Thankfully the results were negative - no meningitis. Grandma and Grandpa Halbgewachs arrived shortly after the test results were in around 1 AM.

Dennis slept in Addie’s room that night. He said that around 2 AM Addie was taken off of the ventilator and was breathing well on her own.

When Addie woke up in the morning around 7 AM she crawled over to me. I noticed immediately how poor her motor skills were. She couldn’t hold her head up well, and she didn’t open her eyes. It was horrifying. Plus she would cry and flail. I could tell she was in pain. The only time she was at peace was when she was nursing. What made matters worse was when she’d finally cry herself to sleep, someone would come in to perform another test or check her vitals and she’d begin to cry all over again.

I was so horrible to see my little girl in pain, confused, and so sick. I was convinced that my baby would never be the same again – even though the doctors kept telling me that her reactions were all “normal”. As usually, Dennis was my rock. He was the ever present optimist. I don’t know what I’d have done without him.

We were moved out of the ICU late Sunday morning, and by that afternoon Addie was improving. I’ll never forget Addie’s first smile that afternoon. She even played peek-a-boo. I started to cry all over again, but with joy. She was coming back to us!

Dennis and I slept in the room with her Sunday. I didn’t get much sleep. I’d sit by her bed and made sure she was breathing wondering how I was ever going to let her sleep alone ever again! Addie had a pretty good night. She was still not feeling well, but seemed to be in less pain.

On Monday they took Addie in for an MRI. That test also showed nothing irregular, and we were discharged that evening around 7 PM.

All of the tests they had performed – CAT scan, spinal tap, MRI, EEG showed, blood test, urine test, x-ray, etc. showed nothing. The final diagnosis was that she had suffered a febrile seizure due to a spike in fever.

Addie has continued to improve, and she’s now completely back to her old self. Thank you God! It did take some time. On Tuesday, she was still a little shaky, her breath smelled like she’d just come off a bender, and she had diarrhea. She must have been working all of the drugs out of her system. But after a good night’s sleep, two good naps and some fresh air, she was good as new. Addie even seems relieved to me. I'll always wonder how much she remembers about all of this.

We want to thank everyone for their help during this nightmare. Thank you Wes and Carol and Mom for being with us everyday at the hospital. Your help and support was such a blessing. Thank you Zach and Stacy for packing us clothes. Thank you Derek and Malia for bringing us our clothes! Thank you Megan and Stacy M. for visiting and making me laugh and hugging me while I cried. Thank you Maggie for taking care of things at home. Thank you Chuck and Dee for visiting and bringing Addie “bootsie” the cat to play with. Thank you Stacy M. for bring us super while we waited to be discharged.

And thanks to everyone who prayed for us. Your prayers lifted us up and gave us all strength. Thank you so much. We thank God for His mercy during this scary time, and we thank Him for all of you.