A Scare

Ok, Elizabeth has been officially dubbed a true Miller. For those of you who know our children, it seems that they never do anything normal when it comes to being sick or injuries. If you simply read last years entries, you would quickly realize what I was talking about! Last year, Erin lost her short term memory when hit with a softball and since has had a root canal done because of the damage to her tooth. Emily was hospitalized for viral meningitis. And Sam was taken by squad and underwent surgery when he literally was staked to the ground with a tent stake. That was all within 4-5 months! Well, I guess Elizabeth wanted to make sure that she fit in perfectly because on Friday, she made a trip to the hospital by squad.

Again, I must confess that I am in awe at God. He does work in mysterious ways. Elizabeth had been fussy throughout the day, it didn’t surprise me. She wasn’t feeling good. I knew she was coming down with a pretty good cold. She had a “barky” cough when she did cough (which was only 4 or 5 times that whole day). She felt a little warm, but after 4 kids and dealing with many 103-104 fevers, this low fever didn’t seem like much. I know that fevers are actually good, so I wasn’t very concerned about it. I didn’t even take her temp because it felt so low. She was falling asleep at the dinner table, so I took her upstairs. I made a bottle so that she would feel a little more comfortable and sat down to hold her while she took it. I was thinking that I would give her some Tylenol at bedtime to help her sleep a little better since she wasn’t feeling good and felt a little warm. I was watching her begin to down the bottle when both of her arms stiffened and she started shaking. It was a little dark in the room, so it took me a second to realize what was going on. She was having a seizure. I rushed her downstairs and yelled for Mark. At that point she her arms and legs were stiff, her eyes were far off and glazed over and she was gasping. I rolled her over on her side and held her as she went through the seizure. Mark called 911. During the call, her eyes rolled back and bubbles were coming out of her mouth as she gasped for air and then she stopped breathing. Unfortunately I announced that to Mark, the other 4 kids were already VERY upset about the seizure and the 911 call. They lost it when they heard she stopped breathing. What seemed like an eternity was probably only seconds. She started gasping for air again and her little body began to relax a little. She began to look at me and tried to reach with one arm. I picked her up and grabbed a wet towel to cool her off. At that point, she was on fire. As I began to rub her down, she went into another seizure. It did not last as long and when she came out of that one, she started screaming. The squad showed up and heard her screaming. They were thrilled to hear her so loud! I carried her to the squad where she proceeded to begin to gag and then throw up. She screamed the entire ride.

Elizabeth does not like anyone grabbing her or trying to touch her when Mommy or Daddy have her and especially when she does not feel good. So… she wasn’t thrilled to have so many strangers trying to check her out let alone taking needles and sticking her with them! She screamed for the next hour or so and off an on after that. They tried to put an IV in her ankle 2 or 3 times without success. They then went to her hand, her arm and her other arm. No success. They were able to draw blood. They never did succeed in putting her on an iv, so she drank 2 bottles of Pedialyte and took a nasty shot in her thigh instead. She also had to be held down for a CAT scan and strapped in for chest x-rays. It was quite an evening!

The good thing was that we were released. They are assuming that it was a fever induced seizure. Her fever was 104.7 at the hospital. Since then, we have had to give her Tylenol and Motrin around the clock. Beginning Saturday, she started breathing funny. Her whole little body moves with every breath but she is still playful and full of smiles. She is fussy when the medicine wears off or she is just waking up. She is eating and drinking. We have talked to the doctors and were told to watch her closely. Today, we go into to check her breathing out.

But, once again, God has given us the privilege to experience His grace and love. Prayer is a mighty thing! He loves it when we go to Him. Our family has learned more about God through this little girl then I ever imagined possible. What a joy it is to rest in Him.