The worst 30 minutes of my life

I had a hard time deciding whether to write this post or not.  In the end, I figured it might be something for Mason to look at in a few years and realize how much his mom and dad love him and what a fright he gave them.  Let me just get down to it and tell you what happened.

On September 4th, 2012 Mason was his normal, bubbly, happy self.  Around 4pm Mason was still acting normal but I could tell he was starting to get a little sick just by the way every once in awhile he would want me to hold and rock him. By 6pm Ryan came home and Mason was in my lap watching TV.  I told Ryan that Mason wasn't feeling well but was overall acting ok.  Ryan takes Kaylie to softball and I am left with Mason and Reese.  Around 8pm Mason was a little warm so I take his temp...100.2.  A very low grade fever so I wasn't worried.  I lay him on the floor to play with him and then get him ready for bed.  I look up to talk to Reese and tell her to get pj's on, when I look down Mason isn't moving.  I yell at him and that's when I notice his eyes were rolled back.  I start screaming at him to wake up, I yell "No, No, No!" "Mason, wake up!".  Nothing.  His eyes stay rolled back and he is a heavy lump in my arms.  I lay him over my arm and whack at his back thinking that he might be choking on something but still nothing. At this point I have absolutely no idea what is going on except that I know that I am losing my baby boy.  Somehow, I reach the phone and call 911.  They asked me what happened and I just say that my baby is unresponsive.  They ask if he is breathing and I cannot tell because I am shaking and screaming at the same time.  They tell me to lay him on his stomach and I can see very slight movements so that was good.  Then they tell me to lay him on his side and wait for the ambulance.  All this time he is still unresponsive, Reese is crying, I am crying, the operator is trying to get me to calm down but that wasn't happening.  Finally after 10 minutes the fire fighters get here.  Reese opens the door and it was all a blur from there.  They put Mason on the stretcher, ask me some questions and then tell me they are taking him to the hospital.  Somehow I manage to call Ryan and I still have no idea what I told him.  Thankfully, one of the very sweet fire fighters took Reese into her room to explain what was going on and calm her down.  I am so very grateful to that man!  Several minutes later we are in the ambulance and Mason is waking up.  They take his temp...102.1.  Reese was so excited to be able to ride with the firefighters, she was so cute and such a great big sister.  As we rode to the hospital they were actually taking my blood pressure and checking my heart rate to make sure I was ok because I was literally in a trance just holding Mason and rocking him (They let me on the stretcher once he woke up).

We get to the hospital and they were all very sweet.  They told me that Mason probably had a seizure due to how fast his temperature increased but wanted to run some tests.  They took some blood, put in an iv, and hooked him up to monitors.  Ryan and Kaylie finally make it to the hospital and poor Kaylie's eyes are bloodshot from crying and Ryan looks like he's in shock.  The Dr comes in and says that Mason has an ear infection and bronchitis which was the cause of the fever.  They give him IV antibiotics and a breathing treatment.  He is doing great.  By midnight he is released with orders to follow up with his pediatrician.

Thursday morning I take Mason to see his doctor.  Dr Yedwab is awesome and knows us well and he was really shocked when he heard about the seizure.  When I told him exactly what happened and that the hospital thought he had had a febrile seizure he kind of shook his head.  His first question was "Did he shake?"  When I said no that kind of worried him.  His words were "I see no ear infection and no bronchitis so I cannot be 100% sure this was febrile.  It could have been an A-typical febrile seizure but I want him to have an EEG and see a Neurologist.  Michelle, I'm pretty sure it is febrile but I want to be absolutely sure"

Monday morning bright and early we take Mason to Medical City Dallas for his EEG.  I was so sure he was going to freak out but he was so amazing.  It took them approximately 25 minutes to map his skull and put all 27 electrodes on.  Then there was another 30 minutes where he had to lay completely still for the test.  For you who know Mason you know what a feat that was.  Thankfully they showed Mickey Mouse on the TV and he sat so still with his blanket in his mouth.

Weds Night Mason's fever spiked again and he sounded really bad.  I was afraid he had croup but he didn't have the barky cough.  It was a long night.  Thursday morning he still sounded terrible so I called his doctor to get him in.  Funny thing was that we were to see the Neurologist that afternoon.  The Dr said Mason had pneumonia, gave him a breathing treatment, antibiotics that work, and off we went to our next appointment.

 We arrived at the Neurologist (and let me say those are some strange doctors.  I'm not sure what it is but they are a little odd).  Anyway, after checking Mason over, seeing the results of the EEG, they say Mason is normal.  Thank the Lord!  After over a week of worrying we could finally take a breath.

Mason, you scared the you know what out of us.  Those 30 minutes when I thought I was losing you were the absolute worst minutes of my life.  I hope to never, ever have to experience that again.  You mean the world to us so please don't ever do anything like that again ok?  Thanks to everyone that called, texted, Facebooked, to let us know you were praying for our little man.  We all love you very much.

Here is the only picture Ryan or I took throughout this whole ordeal. 

And this picture is to show you that Mason is still Mason :)