911....What??!!!

Before I get started on one of the more scary days in my life, I will tell you that everything turned out fine and CJ is back to normal CJ self.

Sunday, November 23, 2014, I wake up to a crying CJ.  She goes back to sleep a few seconds later.  Not too odd or out of the ordinary.  At around 8:30 am, she does this again.  Since it was past her normal wake up time, I decided to go and check on her.  As I pick her up, I immediately notice that she is not her normal CJ self.  While she is still whimpering, she is also very limp and lethargic.  The ‘morning CJ’ I am used to, usually throws off her blanket and jumps up as soon as she hears my voice.  Not this morning.   I carry her into our bedroom and she is still crying quietly and asking for water.  I text JD (who just happened to be working) and tell him that she is acting very strange and that I was going to call the doctor. 

True CJ Attitude

While I am on hold with the doctor’s office, she keeps falling asleep while sitting up, another very un-CJ like thing to do.  After I tell the doctor what is going on with her and that I would like to make an appointment, he says “Ma’am, you need to call 911 and have an ambulance take her to the hospital”….I froze, I knew something was wrong, but I had no idea it was that serious.  After I call 911 (barely able to hold it together), I call and text JD, as soon as I tell him I had to call 911, I start losing it and the fear kicks in.  What is wrong with my baby??  What happened??  As soon as those thoughts entered my foggy brain, I told myself that everything would be ok and said a quick prayer for strength for me and healing for CJ.  After that moment, a calm came over me and I was able to get CJ’s stuff ready for the trip to the hospital. 

The fire department crew was the first to arrive and began to assess CJ.  They thought she might be dehydrated, but that was crazy to me because CJ always has a water bottle and drinks a ton of water.  As soon as the EMTs arrived, they loaded us up and headed to the children’s hospital.  At this point, JD was still on his way.  CJ didn’t make a peep and was still very lethargic.  Not crying, not very responsive, just being very still but at least awake at this point.  As soon as we get to the ER, the nurses and doctors start poking and prodding her all over trying to determine the cause and how to make her better.  Again, she just laid there, she laid there as they were trying to find a vein, she laid there as they took multiple blood samples, she laid there as they gave her an IV.  Her temperature was below what is should be and that coupled with the fact that she didn’t cry or scream when they stuck needles into her, extremely worried the staff and me. 

JD finally arrived not long after we did to the ER, his face went white as he saw CJ lying on the hospital bed.  Her eyes were open and her face was puffy and flushed and she was still very quiet.  The nurses and doctors were amazing and supportive.  We had multiple doctors visit us to see this situation and to talk to us about her condition.  After she had been on the IV for about an hour, she started to perk up.  JD went and got her a popsicle and some orange juice.  She went nuts for the popsicle, she couldn’t get enough of it.  We were so happy to see her respond like that.   After a few visits from the doctors, they decided that she needed to stay the night for more observation and so they could get the blood tests results back to try and determine what had happened.  But they kept saying she was dehydrated.  That still didn’t sit well with us knowing how much she drinks water. 

After a few hours, we were transferred upstairs to a regular hospital room.  At this point, CJ was done (mentally) with having an IV hooked up to her and having to be tethered to a pole, she was not a happy camper.  Still, music to our ears.  We stayed the night and slept what we could with the every other hour nurse visits.  Surprisingly CJ slept pretty well considering all of her extra attachments.  The doctors made their rounds about 10:00 Monday morning and told us that they were going to release CJ.  WOOHOO!!! PRAISE GOD!!   But, we still didn’t have a reason as to her episode.  They told us to make a follow up appointment with her regular pediatrician the following day.  We finally got to go home around noon on Monday. We were so glad to get to go home, but still worried that we didn’t have a specific diagnosis.

feeling much better!

Fast forward to her pediatrician visit the next day.  I was not able to go due to work obligations, but I met with JD afterwards and he filled me on the details.  Turns out, CJ has ketotic hypoglycemia.  Wikipedia refers to ketotic hypoglycemia as “a common but mysterious disease of recurrent hypoglycemia symptoms with ketosis in young children”….awesome, mysterious and recurrent.  Fantastic.  It basically means she had low blood sugar and that caused her episode.  Her doctor is optimistic that she will outgrow this around 4 or 5, but says that she cannot fast or go long periods of time without eating.  It also seems to be common in ‘smaller’ children, and well CJ is about the same size as my 14 month old cousin.  It was so nice to finally know what caused this reaction. 

She was rather snot nosed the Saturday before the drama, so JD and I didn’t give her any milk since that sometimes makes the mucus issues more of a problem.  The doctor said that since she didn’t have any milk before bedtime that probably caused the episode. 

Thank you Jesus that it was not more serious and can be controlled by pretty much letting my child eat whenever she wants.  She now has earned that right.  (That statement will probably come back to bite me in the butt…uh oh….haha)  Relieved we have an answer? Yes.  Still worried when I get up in the morning and she is still asleep? Always. 

old CJ antics

so glad she's back to herself!

Does anyone have any experience with this disease???