A little stress in our evening

Grace and Camille with our new friends from the fire station!

We were getting ready to go to a neighbor's picnic late this afternoon. Ben had taken a quick walk to our garden plot. Gabe had been quite cranky after his nap but this is not abnormal so I didn't think much of it. He was insistent that I carry him so I placed him beside me on the counter as I was putting the cookies on a plate for the picnic. Of course, all the kids were close by and asking to have a bite of cookie. I gave them each a small piece. Almost immediately after Gabe put his tiny piece in his mouth he fell backwards on the counter. At first I thought he was choking but I soon realized that wasn't the problem. I guess I didn't really know what was going on and it really scared me. I grabbed him in my arms and ran outside to yell for Ben as I knew he must be on his way back down our lane. He came running and grabbed Gabe while I ran to call 911. He was having a seizure.

So in the mean time the seizure stopped and we could hear the sirens but they never got to our house. A few minutes later they called and asked where our house was!!! When they did get to our lane they went to our neighbors who were having the picnic and then finally arrived at our house. Good thing it wasn't a huge emergency! The fire truck didn't even attempt our driveway but walked up to our house. We had six guys in our living room. It was quite the event for all of us. Poor Seth got scared when all of this was happening and Grace found him in the basement. It probably didn't help that I showed my fear.

The EMTs gave Gabe a little oxygen and basically just stayed for a few minutes. Gabe seems to be doing okay now but we are watching him closely. None of the kids have ever had a febrile seizure but I guess this is fairly common; Ben says 1 in 25 children have them. It is nice to have a Pediatrician right close by :) I only wish he had been in the kitchen when it happened and not down the road as it would have helped me not feel so extremely helpless. At least I now know what to do if it happens again.

I guess one good thing that came out of this is that now the people at the fire station know where we are! The crazy thing is, the fire station is just 1/2 mile away!