Annada Marie Vergo

It’s been a couple of weeks and Annada seems just fine, so I think it is time write about her first ER trip. It scared me a lot, so it’s taken a while for me to want to write about it.

Watching a movie. When the doctor checked her out he put her in this position. She didn't even move a finger for at least another hour.

March 16 Annada came home from school seeming fine. By dinner time her fever was 102, so I decided to take her to the doctor that night. I had the flu the week before and if she had the flu I wanted her on tamiflu right away. We took her to an express care clinic and she didn’t have the flu. They thought she “might be getting an ear infection” and sent us home with a prescription for antibiotics. I didn’t feel great about that, but I knew she didn’t have the flu, so I just figured we would be taking it easy while she fought off some random sickness.

The next morning she woke up with a temp but was happy, so I gave her some ibuprofen and went on like normal. Annada really seemed fine.

In the afternoon Annada and Marc were playing in her room under the stairs when she told Marc she was tired. Marc says she pulled a blanket over herself and went to sleep on the floor. Marc figured sleep would help her feel better and came up stairs. About 10 minutes later he saw me and mentioned she was sleeping. I decided to go check on her.

When I came downstairs my first thought was that she looked so cute sleeping. A half second later it registered that her mouth was doing something strange. I reached out and put my arms on her back. By getting closer I could see her jerking under the blanket. Her eyes were half open and her mouth was shaking around. I called her name loudly and she didn’t respond.

I pulled the blanket off and gently wrapped my arms around her waist. I didn’t know what to do, so I just laid there with her, praying and trying to decide if I should call 911. I was 90% sure she was having a seizure so I was hoping it would pass soon. It felt like whole dynasties rose and fell before she stopped.

Trying to be rational I figured it was probably more like a minute. I called for Marc and passed her to him to get her out of the small room. I sat on the couch and he passed her back to me. She was totally limp – with her eyes half open but rolled back. She wouldn’t respond to me.

I asked Marc to call her doctor. He dialed and passed the phone to me. I talked to a triage nurse who passed me to an on-call nurse. The nurse told me I had to take Annada to a pediatric ER and confirmed that she probably had a febrile seizure. Then she scared me. “Your daughter isn’t breathing right. I can hear her. It is shallow breathing,” she said.

That was the one moment I almost broke down. “Oh God, please protect my baby!” I thought. I took a breath and asked if we needed to call for an ambulance. The nurse said we didn’t. I asked if we could take her to a pediatric urgent care clinic (thinking she might get better care there and may be seen faster) and she told me it had to be a pediatric ER.

Marc and I put Annada in the car and I sat in back with her. It had been about 30 minutes since the seizure and Annada was finally starting to respond to me and her breathing seemed stronger. A few times she even lifted her head in the car. She was still pretty limp though.

I walked into the ER and started to sign her in. I was cradling her and I think carrying a semi-conscince child must be up there with heart pain because the lady at the desk waited me to fill in name and age before telling me it was good enough and started walking me back into the ER. A nurse met us in the hallway and told her what room to put us in.

A minute later a nurse came in and checked Annada’s vitals. After jogging down the hallway with Annada, things practically stopped. Her temp was 102 again so the nurse stripped her down, turned the air conditioning up and gave her a ton of ibuprofen. She told me Annada was stable.

The sign on the door said, “God, bless the child in this room.” I stared at it.

It was great to know Annada was going to be fine. And about an hour and a half later Annada seemed tired but mostly recovered.

We were there 3 hours. It was a little frustrating because we weren’t really sure why. They would come in, check something, 30 minutes later run a test, 30 minutes later check her vitals again, 30 minutes later tell us the test results, etc.

I talked with her pediatrician a few days later and found out they were holding her for observation. That totally makes sense – and even explains why two doctors came in at the end. Annada told them she wanted to go home and they laughed. “That makes me feel great about sending you home,” he said.

I do wish we had understood at the time, though. It was hard to wonder what was going on for 3 hours.

The prognosis is good. Because I didn’t see the whole seizure there is some question about what happened. But I’ve watched her closely and Annada is totally Annada. She’s using both sides of her body and asking questions like, “what is our destination, Mommy?” when we get in the car. As long as it doesn’t happen again we will call it a febrile seizure and a one-time event.

Annada doesn’t seem to remember much of the night. She is deeply bonded with the bear they gave her, though. And she uses her hospital bracelet to play doctor with.

As I walked out the ER with her that night I passed by families of people in the ER huddled in the hallway and walked by a chart full of kids not going home. It gave me a deep sense of gratitude we went to the ER when we didn’t really need to – instead of really needing it.

When Annada was little and scared sometimes she sucked on my arm. She did it a ton in the hospital.

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