When you have a healthy child, there are things you don't think much about. Maybe even think other parents overreact to. Like germs, fevers, or the sniffles.
When Mikey, my 9 year old, was really little, he had a seizure disorder. He would get these fevers, and they would shoot up really high in a hurry. From nothing to 104 in a matter of hours. The rapid increase in body temperature would cause him to have a seizure. The first time, they were classic febrile seizures. Febrile is a fancy medical way of saying caused by a fever. Seizures aren't always the scary convulsions you think of when you hear that word. Sometimes, they're small. Most febrile seizures are a single, full body jerk, but they happen repeatedly. Picture this - you know when you are just falling asleep, and you dream that you're falling or tripping over something, and then your whole body jerks and you're awake again? That's what a classic febrile seizure looks like. On Mikey's first birthday, he had about 100 of them. I'm not exaggerating, either! It finally made me uncomfortable enough that I took him to the emergency room. It was January, and it was cold outside. By the time we got to the hospital, his temperature had dropped back down below 100, and the seizures had stopped. The ER doctor told me I was imagining it, or that maybe Mikey was falling asleep and then jerking himself back awake.
I KNEW that doctor was wrong, and I left there extremely angry. I called my sister the next day - she's a Physician's Assistant, and our family's medical dictionary. She said I was right, that it was a febrile seizure, and I should pay close attention if it ever happened again. Well, it happened almost every time Mikey got a fever for the next 4 years. Each time he had seizures, they were different kinds - there are about 100 different types of seizures, believe it or not. I remember one time, he was talking to me, and he stopped in the middle of a word, rolled his eyes up into his head and groaned for about 30 seconds, then he finished his word and sentence. It was so scary! But when I went online, I was able to define it. The last seizure Mikey ever had was his first Grand Maul seizure. That's the scary one that you see in the movies. The first 30 seconds, he was still and stiff as a statue. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell over and hit his head. Then for another 30 seconds or so, he had convulsions. It was the scariest minute of my life! I called 9-1-1, and we went to the emergency room. FINALLY, after 4 years of not being able to explain why this was happening to him, the doctor was able to explain it to me.
There's a seizure disorder (and I don't know if he ever told me the name of it. If so, I have forgotten) that affects small children, where seizures are caused by very specific triggers. Mikey's trigger was fevers, but it can be stress, flashing lights, loud noises, etc... There were like 5 or 6 different possible triggers. This is something they outgrow by the age of 5 or 6. It explained everything, and once I was educated, I knew how to deal with it. My nephew had the same disorder, only his trigger was stress. So, at the age of 2, he would throw a fit, and it would cause him to have a seizure. Fun for mom, huh?
The point of all of this is that before the seizures, I was a firm believer that you should not always try to suppress a fever in a child. I still believe that the body has miraculous ways of dealing with illnesses, and one of them is fever. A fever has a job to do, and I always felt like we should let it. I learned that you can't always stick to those types of ideals. With Mikey, I had to become conscious of when a fever arrived, and I had to consistently work to suppress them, in order to prevent the larger of two evils.
I also believe that if you don't allow your children to be exposed to at least some germs (playing in the dirt, or on the germy playground equipment, etc...) they won't have strong immune systems. They need to develop immunities. It's a strange turn of events for me to be one of those moms who carries hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes in my purse. I even have a surgical mask in there.
This week some of the cancer moms have been having a discussion about "you know you're a cancer mom when..." But it's made me reflect on all of this. You never really understand what other people are going through until you're there.
You know you're a cancer mom when a fever of 100, combined with a cough make you feel panicky. That's Matthew this morning.
After writing most of this out, the clinic finally called me back. They want us to go up to the hospital for a chest X-Ray and an exam. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! I'll post an update as soon as I have some news.
Much love to all of you, and thank you for your support!
~Wendy, and the Burr family
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