November 28, 2012

The flu is NO fun

Tinsley has the flu.  We all got the flu shot early this fall and thought we would not have to deal with the flu.  But, it turns out the flu shot only covers certain strains of the flu and Tinsley came down with Flu type B which the flu shot doesn't protect against.  She was literally fine Monday morning.  She was happy and feeling good and went to play with her friend Journi.  Around 4, Linda called me and said that Tinsley had not slept all afternoon.  She said that she laid down to take her nap but never went to sleep.  A little while later, Linda said that she noticed she felt warm so checked her temperature.  She had a temp of 100 and started throwing up right after Linda checked her.  I went to pick her up and gave her Tylenol before we left Linda's.  We got home and Tinsley was sitting in the rocking chair with Mom and did not seem to be feeling well at all.  I checked her temperature again right at 5 and it had gone up to 102.  I was about to go ahead and get some Advil to give her.  Tinsley got out of the chair and stood up and started throwing up again.  She then started having a seizure.  Her eyes rolled back in her head and she continued to vomit.  I can honestly say I have never been so scared in my life.  We laid her on her side and she continued to seize for about 30 seconds. After she stopped, I asked mom to call for Toby because we thought he was outside in the yard.  It turned out he was down at our cattle pens so I had mom call him on her phone and I called and talked to the PA at our pediatrician's office. After discussing with the PA, we felt pretty sure it was a febrile seizure due to high fever, but she started vomiting again right away and was very pale.  She was also not really making much sense when she talked.   Toby and I took her to North Central Baptist.  She continued to vomit off and on all the way to San Antonio.  We did not put her in her carseat because she was so upset and was still vomiting.  She kept calling for me all the way to La Vernia.  This was pretty upsetting because I was holding her.  Her fever got up to 103 on the way to the hospital.  Once we got to the hospital, they took us back almost immediately.  They hooked up an iv and started giving her fluids and zofran.  They were finally able to get her fever down to around 100 with a Tylenol suppository. They did a chest x-ray, urinalysis and lab work.  We were shocked when they said she had the flu.  They think the seizure was a febrile seizure.  These seizures are basically considered harmless and are brought on by spike in fevers.  They said it is not necessarily how high her temp gets, but how quickly it rises which is dangerous and can bring on the seizures.  We followed up with an appointment with Dr. Boecker today.  Tinsley continued to run a fever for the past few days.  We alternated Tylenol and Advil to keep it under control and to try to keep her comfortable.  The entire family is taking Tamiflu so that hopefully we won't get it and in order to hopefully shorten Tinsley's bought with it.

Happy and feeling good Monday morning.  
Ready to go play with Journi.

At the hospital, not thrilled with the IV

Tinsley kept telling us the hear rate/pulse monitor was "hot" 
and blowing on it.



Tinsley LOVES a video that Toby has on his phone of Blaine and Brett working cattle.  She was trying to be so brave and not cry when they put in her IV.  Toby was playing the video for her.  She sure does love those Harvey boys!



2 days later, still not feeling too great. :-(

Ace has been hanging out at Mom Mom and DD's 
in an effort to avoid the flu.