Longest three minutes

It's been over a week now since, I think I can safely say, the worst day of our lives.  Mady had woken up from her afternoon nap with a fever of 101.  I gave her some Tylenol and started keeping an eye on her.  She was acting pretty normal, like nothing was bothering her, until dinner.  She didn't eat much and became very lethargic.  She just sat in her highchair staring.  After we cleaned up I grabbed her and took her to sit on the couch for a little while and watch a movie.  That's when I noticed her start convulsing and looked down and saw that our precious little girl was having a seizure.  I called out to Nick who immediately called 911 and rushed to our neighbors house who is a nurse.  The seizure lasted about three minutes and it was the longest three minutes of my life.  She started having trouble breathing and began turning blue.  I was going crazy.  There was a time when Nick and I both thought we might lose her because of her not being able to breathe.  Thanks to the grace of God, he got her through it and the seizure passed.  The ambulance showed up and took us to the hospital.  After five hours and several tests later (unfortunately for Mady) we learned that she had a viral infection called bronchiolitis which caused her fever.  Apparently, a small percentage of  children have seizures when their fevers spike very quickly (nobody told me that!)  Her fever was at 103 when we made it to the hospital.  This doesn't mean that she'll have seizures for the rest of her life and she has no long-term effects, but now that it has happened to her once, she has a 30% chance that it could happen again when she has a fever, up until about the age of 5.  They grow out of it.  Needless to say, we will be very cautious now when she gets anywhere near a fever.

The next day she still felt horrible and after a doctor's visit in the morning, she spent the entire day in my arms or on the couch.  I have never seen her that sick and I was watching her like a hawk.  She is now doing much better.  She still has a bit of a runny nose but no fever and she's in great spirits.

I can't even explain the feeling of helplessness and fear we felt for those three minutes.  It got me to thinking of all the parents out there who have children battling for their lives with various awful diseases.  They feel that same helplessness and fear for much longer than three minutes.  I can't imagine.  I thank God now every night for keeping her safe and healthy.  I keep those parents in my prayers because I can't imagine being in their shoes. 

I really want to thank all of our friends and family who were there for us with support and prayer. You have no idea how much we appreciate it. 

Mady thanks you too!