Scared to Death

Because Nathan has been doing so well lately Matt and I decided to go on a camping trip with his family to Ephraim this last weekend.  We left Friday night after everyone got off work and arrived at the campsite late.  We woke Nathan up just before 11:00 and gave him his medicine but he didn't want to go back to sleep.  We got him to sleep about 11:45 but he woke up about every hour through the night and decided to get up at 6:00.

Nathan clearly was out of sorts Saturday morning and was just fussy and cranky.  I put him down for a nap at 9:00 and he slept solid for three hours.  He was up for about an hour and then had a seizure.  He went limp first like normal but then started convulsing and then gagging.  He kept closing his eyes and couldn't keep them open and then he stopped breathing.  We started shaking his arms and legs and saying his name and he was just starting to turn blue when he gasped and started breathing again.  The seizure was almost five minutes long which is the longest he had ever had. 

Nathan cried for about a half hour after the seizure and wouldn't drink anything or let us comfort him.  Finally Matt had the idea to lay him down and lay next to him so he knew he wasn't alone.  He went to sleep in just a few minutes.

We decided not to leave because usually he will only have one seizure that large and we just tried to keep Nathan asleep as long as we could and get him to drink a lot of water.  He did better once he woke up but was still cranky and not quite himself.

After dinner I took Nathan into our trailer to change his diaper and he started having another seizure.  I layed him on the bed hoping he would just go limp like normal but he started to convulse again and then he threw up and stopped breathing.  I started screaming for help but no one was around and could hear me.  Nathan's face started turning blue again and so I ran to Matt's parent's trailer to get his mom who knows CPR.  We were back within 10 seconds but by that point Nathan's lips were completely blue and his eyes were rolled back in his head.

I started screaming his name and crying but Matt's mom pushed me out of the way and told me she would handle it.  She cleared his airways and positioned his head and patted his back and he coughed up the rest of the throw up and began to breath again.  His eyes instantly closed and we couldn't get him to wake back up.  He was out of it for about 10 minutes and then came around again and started to cry.  At that point we all decided to pack up and head home.

He had another seizure this morning but it was nothing compared to what he went through on Saturday.  We called in to the neurologist and are just waiting for a call back to know what to do next.  I just want to cry every time I think about Nathan having those horrible seizures on Saturday.  I just keep thinking how lucky we were to have had Shayne so close by when this happened because she very likely could have saved his life. 

I have never before felt that absolute horror feeling that you get when you think you may lose your baby.  Nathan didn't stop breathing for very long but in the moment we were absolutely panicked and terrified.  Matt and I both agreed that we need to take CPR classes in case this ever were to happen again.  We are so grateful that Nathan is okay but we are worried sick about him.