Bush emergency
Sept 27-Last night was our first Bush emergency. Greenleigh woke up around 11 and was on fire. Her fever was 105.7 and she was bright red. So we immediately stripped her down and put her in a lukewarm bath while we gave her Tylenol. Her fever only came down to 104.5 but it was coming down. I stayed in her room with her for the night knowing she nor I would get much rest. As I lay beside her, keeping a cool rag on her forhead, I watched her sleep be restless. She was constantly moving and her breathing was erratic. She would wake up every 20 minutes or so and cry out. I felt so bad for her. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. She woke up crying and everything seemed norm, but then I noticed her arm was twitching and all of a sudden she started convulsing and screaming. Her mouth was open and unmoving, but she was screaming and her eyes were doing this weird movement. It was absolutely terrifyingly. As a parent it really is one of the worst feelings ever, when something is wrong and there is absolutely nothing you can do except wait it out. I held her loosely and kept saying over and over, "It's ok baby, it's ok. You're going to be ok." I said this over and over again while she screamed not knowing what was happening. Meanwhile I called out to Steven telling him to call the 911 line. To call T or M or someone anyone that could help us. It was horrible and something I will never forget although I wish I could. I've never been around someone who is having a seizure, and I hope I never have to again. It went on for what seemed like an eternity, but was only about a minute. After she stopped it was like magic. Her fever was suddenly gone, and while she was drenched in sweat, she was alert and acting like nothing had happened. Except for her being tired it was as if nothing was wrong. I am sharing this with you to help not only myself, but to keep an accurate log of my life here. Now here is where the fun begins. Life in the Bush is a bit different. There are no ambulances, no hospitals, no doctors on call waiting to jump in the middle of the night. We have a medical clinic that serves for everything. We have a Physicians Assistant, a few Registered Nurses, and some Health Aids. The PA and the RNs take turns being on call for the night in case of an emergency. Something like this or worse. And how the 911 lines works is you call it and leave a message and wait for a call back. Whoever is the on call person is the one waiting at night to jump up and answer emergencies. This was completely new to us. Had we been in Stafford I would have ran her to the closest ER, but life in the Bush is different. This being our first time and needing help Steven runs to our neighbors T and M for the protocol at 2 in the morning. We make the call and wait for a callback. We discuss with the RN what has happened. She informs us we can bring her in now or wait until later in the day. We decide to go ahead and take her in. So we take her in and the nurse goes down the list of checks. Everything looks good except her throat is a little red, but that could be sinus drainage from her runny nose. But tells us what to look for and everything. So we go home and she decides she wants to watch Frozen in bed because she's scared to go to sleep. I am hoping she will fall asleep but she doesn't. Not until the movie is over and it's around 5 a.m. but her temp is back to normal, so we fall asleep and everything seems ok. We wake up at 8 and I can feel the heat radiating off of her again. I scramble for a thermometer and discover its back up to 104.8 again....so I immediately give her some Motrin and have Steven call the nurse again. She's going to need to be seen. Well, shortly after she throws up her Motrin and the small sip of water she took. So I'm thinking it's Strep throat again. We take her in again and she does the check again. Only this time she sees her tonsils are inflamed but the test is negative. So, we will have to wait and see. So am keeping an eye on her. Giving her lots of fluids and rest. She still seems scared to fall asleep, but I can relate to that. It is almost time for another round of meds. Hopefully it won't spike again. Hopefully it will break. Hopefully she will feel better soon. But there you have it. We have survived our first Bush emergency.....Hopefully we won't have another....