Today, Seth had a well child checkup. He turned 5 in May, but he hasn't had his well child yet. So today was the day. He did so good getting his finger pricked and having his ears and eyes checked. He was even a trooper when they wanted him to wear a paper gown. He looked so cute wearing it. Even though Drew kept telling him it looked like he was wearing a dress, Seth stayed up beat! When Dr. Ponzi finally came in, we had a long conversation about my concerns with vaccinations. I had already decided that we were going to get up to date with their vaccines (slowly), but I wanted to ask a few more questions. He assured me that all the negative publicity about vaccines in unfounded. Seth needed 5 shots to get up to date. But I only agreed to have 2 of them. Dr. Ponzi agreed that fine and we could come in a couple of other times and get the others. I didn't want them all at once. So the nurse came in and gave him one shot in each arm. He did GREAT! He didn't even cry! There was no way I could have predicted what was about to happen. Our visit was over. We gathered our things and went to check out. We were standing in line waiting for our turn when the unthinkable happened. Seth fell to the floor with a huge, thunderous thud! What!? His eyes rolled back in his head and I threw my papers and reached to grab him. It was so scary. He was having a seizure. It only lasted a few seconds, but way too long. How could this be happening? Lindsey was crying and Ben and Drew just stood there frozen. Dr. Ponzi came and took Seth from me. Seth just cried and cried. He was totally out of it. The doctor felt certain he had had a "vaso vagal" reaction. Mandy (my sister and nurse), could you comment and explain to me exactly what that means? The doctor was sure it had nothing to do with the shots, but rather a reaction to the stress of it all. The worst part of the whole thing was that Seth hit his head on the concrete floor REALLY hard. When he was finally able to talk again, his chief complaint was a bad pain in his head. So the doctor wouldn't let us leave. He was concerned about a head injury. Seth was acting lethargic and extremely weak. After about an hour and a half, Dr Ponzi finally decided to send us to the Emergency Room. So we took Seth to the van and he started perking up. So we got him out of the van and walked around a bit. The doctor came outside and agreed that we could go home and observe him and skip the ER for now. By the time we got home, he was be-bopping around like normal. Thank you Lord!
What a crazy day this turned out to be! It was really pitiful to hear the other kids explain what they were thinking while all this was unfolding. Ben said he thought Seth was dead. Lindsey was crying and crying. A nearby mother was very kind to come and hug Lindsey and offer words of comfort. I was reminded how quickly something can happen. Thankfully, we are all at home tonight and everyone is fine.
So, here is your turn to leave me your vaccination story. I just don't know what to think. Ben has an appointment next week. Bless his heart. You know he will be nervous. I know I will be. So share with me your knowledge on vaccines and/or passing out with seizures.
