Max is SO BRAVE!

The Salvateenies have been fighting a cold for the past week and a half.  Max was the first to come down with the sniffles and it spread like wildfire to his siblings.  They have generally had runny noses and coughs, but nothing too persistent and no high fevers, so we were in "watch and see" mode.

They seemed to be on the upswing, so we thought we'd take them on a trial outing.  I had the day off on Friday and we headed to Best Buy to see if we could find an HDTV that would fit both on our wall and within our budget.  As would stood, paralyzed, looking at the wall of televisions, Caroline decided she needed to get out of the stroller and explore the store.  Her favorite item was a Bissell vacuum that she could pick up herself (believe that claim that it's "light weight"!), but she was a huge fan of the front-loading washers:

The boys were mostly content in their stroller, which was odd. We were sure they'd get jealous watching Caroline running around.  When we got home everyone went right down for a nap and slept well past six o'clock.  Friday evening, both Max and Daniel were a little warm, but I checked their temperatures and it wasn't anything to worry about.

On Saturday, they woke up early and I made them breakfast smoothies as a treat (blackberries, strawberries, pineapple, banana, yogurt, and milk).  They sucked them down and asked for more.  By eleven they were more than ready for naps, and were asleep almost before I put them in their cribs.  They slept through until a bit after one, when it was time for lunch.  Caroline stuffed her face with cheese sandwiches, but the boys were not interested, opting instead for the Cheerio diet.  I checked their temps again, and again got something a bit over 100, but under 101.  I'd given them Tylenol at 10, so I was planning on the next dose at 2 and wasn't too worried.

My brother, Uncle Kelly, was playing with them and getting them to eat Cheerios while I slipped into the kitchen to find them some fruit.  I emerged with a bowl of pear bits only to find Max goofing around in his chair.  He had his head back and he was snoring.  Big, loud snores.  But he wasn't goofing around.  His eyes were open, but not focused, and when I called his name, he didn't move.

I waved my hand in front of his face.  Nothing.  So I picked him up out of his high chair and he was limp as a little rag doll.  Instinct told me it wasn't a good idea to have his big head lolling around on a limp neck on my shoulder, so I lay him down flat on the ground and asked my brother to bring me the phone so I could call the advice nurse.  He was still breathing, but with a sort of gurgle sound, and he still wasn't responding to anything and was totally limp.  As the Kaiser automated system picked up, I all of a sudden remembered the announcement they make at the beginning of each call - "If you think you are having a medical or psychiatric emergency, please hang up and call 911."  So, I did.

I called 911, and there was a sort of high pitched hum, but nothing connected.  So I frantically hung up and called back.  Same thing.  And a third time.  I'd finally decided to give it a try on my cell phone when the landline rang - it was 911 calling back because they'd gotten a hang up from our line (there were actually two messages on our machine saying officers were being sent to our address based on a hang up that came in while I was trying to call out).  I gave the operator Max's information and she said that help was on the way.

Uncle Kelly kept Caroline and Daniel distracted while we waited so that I could keep my eyes on Max.  He was still breathing, but his color had gone and his lips were getting dark.  I put my finger in his mouth to check that he didn't have a Cheerio lodged in his throat and his jaw was clenched with his teeth about half an inch apart.  At that point, I noticed that the index finger on his left hand was twitching a bit.  His hands slowly closed into fists and at some point he raised them up in front of his chest like he was boxing.  He sort of twitched all over and then moaned - a tiny, faraway moan, but his body sort of sighed and relaxed a little and his eyes closed.

Within two minutes of the call from the operator, we had three EMTs coming in from a fire truck outside.  Uncle Kelly let them in and moved Daniel and Caroline out of the way (in their high chairs - brilliant move to keep them contained while folks were moving in and out).  They set up a little oxygen mask for him and as I held it on his lips slowly started turning pink again.  They added little electrode thingies so they could check his heart rate and then handed off to the paramedic whose ambulance had just shown up.  The paramedic pinched Max's shoulder and he cried, which was the correct reaction.  But because he'd shown signs of a seizure and was still warm, he decided we were going to the ER.  He carried Max out to the ambulance while I put on some clothes (it's one thing to be disheveled taking your toddler to the ER - it's another to be in your pijamas at 2pm!).  My brother stayed with the others and I grabbed my purse and phone and headed out.

When I got to the ambulance, Max was on the gurney with a little teddy bear he'd been given:

We named him Dr. Rex Bear.  I was invited in to sit on the gurney and hold Max.  I called Joe from the ambulance but could only give him the basics because I needed both hands to hold Max.  It was a short drive to the ER and we were ushered right in to be registered and into a room, where we were met by a very friendly nurse and the equally friendly Dr. Lim (I resisted the urge to ask him if he was related to Jeremy, but he was Lin-credibly calming and nice).

Because everyone who had attended us was male, Max did not get the chance to show off his flirting, but he checked out as pretty normal anyway.  His temperature was 103 when we got there, so we need to get a new thermometer!  They gave him some ibuprofen and a prescription for amoxycillin for us to hold onto just in case it turns out to be an ear infection (his left ear is a little red, but that's often viral and we don't want to give him antibiotics if they're not going to do anything for him).  More likely, this was a small febrile seizure, scary to live through, but that won't do any real damage.

You can't imagine how happy I was to see those pink lips!

Once I knew everything was OK, I had a chance to calm down and realize that I had left the house in an ambulance.  And since I had brought my keys with me, there was no way for anyone to bring the van to take us home.  So, our choices would be for someone to drive all the way to the hospital and get the keys from me, just to double back, or to put one of the new car seats in my dad's car so he could come get us. The second option made more sense and by the time we were out of the pharmacy, our chariot was awaiting!

I can only imagine how scary it was for Joe, getting the phone call that I was taking Max to the hospital in an ambulance and then getting only spotty updates from there because cell service was not good in the ER.  He made it through the next four hours of work and came home to hug Max.  As strong as he'd been thinking about it all, and even though he knew it was all OK now, he couldn't help let out a couple of sobs as he pulled Max in extra close for a hug.  The folks at work arranged for someone else to take his shift tomorrow so that he can stay close and keep an eye on all of them, which was really nice of them (the weekend crew at the radio station has had three babies make ER visits in the past month...spooky!).

Everyone's off to bed now.  I think it's time for Mommy and Daddy to have a drink!  Cheers!