January has been a pretty busy month!
We started of the new year by throwing our annual New Years Eve Party at our house. We had about 25 or so people over to play for the title of Beer Pong champion and, yet again, Matt and I were shut out the very first round. We thought we'd change it up a bit and make it a prom-themed party. We asked people to find the most ridiculous dresses and suits. Some found some hideous stuff and others found some more traditional outfits.
The weather has been very pleasant this year allowing teaching lessons to be very tolerable. Matt has been traveling up north to Greeley (2.5 hours away) for work and has been pretty tired. Can't blame the poor guy. Unfortunately, this week he decided to start staying in a hotel room to save himself the drive. The weather decided to turn ugly beginning with a snow storm and sub-zero weather. As bad timing would have it, he picked the wrong week to stay. This past Monday, after I had played an indoor soccer game with friends, I was driving home in the snow and Roman was asleep in his car seat. He awoke with a frightful screech and I reach around to wake him up (thinking he was having a nightmare). I looked at him in the rear view mirror and realized that he was having a SEIZURE! I have seen seizures before with my old dog but seeing a 2 year old child having a seizure, YOUR 2 year old child, was a whole other story! I pulled the car over and pulled him out of the car seat and called 911. The ambulance was there in under 2 minutes. By the time they got there, he had stopped seizing and had fallen asleep again. The medic took him from me and put him in the ambulance while I parked my car. On the ride to the hospital, Roman was awake and crying. I was riding in the front so there was more room for the medic to work. Roman was in an unfamiliar place being stared at, poked and worked on by 2 total strangers. It was a very helpless feeling. The medic came to the conclusion that Roman was having a FEBRILE SEIZURE. This kind of seizure is the body's reaction to a rapid spike in temperature. Roman's temp was 101.9 at the time the ambulance got there. His body didn't have time to adjust so the seizure allows the body to "reset" the internal thermostat. This type of thing affects only 2-5% of children ages 6 months to 5 years. I encourage those of you with children to do some research and be very careful if your child feels like they are developing a fever. Between the ER doc and the medic, they didn't seem too worried about the diagnosis but warned us that since he has done it before, it could happen again. He also said that I wouldn't have to call 911 if another seizure occurred but rather lay him on his side and wait for the seizure to pass. Watching it the first time was enough for me. Seeing those empty eyes and his whole body shaking was a scary and helpless feeling.
Since then, Roman has been back to the normal happy, healthy kid he was before with no side effects. Unfortunately, we have both been stuck in the house due to sub-zero weather and snow. The last 3 days has given us a HIGH temp of 3 degrees and record lows around the -15 degree range. So it seems that winter is getting some revenge on the pleasant weather we have all been enjoying.
It's been a fast paced start to the new year. Can't wait to see what February brings.
