Around 6 pm last night Nathan was trying to get on a skateboard at a friend's house so I picked him up leaving the skateboard there (he's one and definitely not ready to skateboard) and began to scream. Now Nate, when he gets hurt or angry, has the tendency to scream one big long scream and then not inhale for 8-10 seconds and then start screaming at the top of his lungs again. So, this is what he began to do and I told him, like I usually do, "breathe Nate, breathe! C'mon Nate! BREATHE!" and then he tensed up and then went limp in my arms. I started yelling hysterically for Thad and we both watched his eyes roll back into his head. I had one of those "oh gosh" moments and I thought that maybe his time was gone. I didn't know what was happening...we laid him on the couch, had the girls call 911, and started breathing into his mouth to try to keep oxygen to his brain. He laid there for what seemed like an eternity lifeless and limp. I wondered if this was really happening to us...finally he came to slowly, but still listless and lethargic, but at least he was breathing. It was the longest 20-30 seconds of our lives.
The police, ambulances and fire department arrived quickly and assessed the situation and then hauled Nate and I to the ER in La Palma. He continued to scream and even turned blue right in front of one of the nurses who began to interrogate me about why I hadn't brought him in for this before! Ugh! It wasn't this serious before! Eventually I got to hold him, feed him, and sing to him and he calmed down (well, of course after they stopped poking him!)
They were very nice to us there but didn't have a pediatric place so they needed to transfer him to a hospital that had a pediatric place and a place that our insurance would cover. We stayed there until 1 am when Kaiser finally came to get us and transfer us all the way to Sunset (all the way in Hollywood), since all of the close hospitals were full, and we arrived there around 1:45am.It was a long night in a room that had 4 kids in it and a bunch of sleeping parents (we got the floor since all of the chairs were taken) and they kept waking the poor kid up. Sunset was where he had his surgery back in April 2008 but we had a totally different experience this time. We had a hard time getting help from the nurses, the doctor took forever to come see him and it was a nightmare. Finally at noon today a doctor came to see him (besides the one that checked him in last night at 2 am) and told us that they think that it was a Breath Holding Spell, that they're somewhat common (well, not the passing out part) and that it could happen again. He also told us to watch for signs of him having a seizure (even though they don't think that it was you can never be too sure!)
It was a long, no, a super-long, stress-filled night that ended with a healthy kid but two overly tired, grumpy, bickering parents! I am glad that Heavenly Father saw fit to leave Nathanael with us for the time being--I'm not ready to let him go just yet. It makes every second count even more.
