Holy moly tough weekend!

Our Easter weekend was... how do you say?... a bit rough, I guess.  (Good) Friday night it all started when Will woke up with a fever and that please-God-don't-let-that-be-the-barking-seal-again cough at 11:45.  We gave him some motrin and Stephen slept in there the rest of the night to keep an ear on him.  He woke up at 6 and seemed fine and went back to sleep.  I went in there at 7 to check on him and he felt pretty warm, but I just knew he was going to wake up in 10 minutes, so I would wait to give him the motrin until then.  Well, 7:10 rolls around and Stephen's screaming my name.  I run in there and Will is having a seizure.  Arms and legs convulsing, eyes rolling back in his head, he's foaming at the mouth, the works.  IT. WAS. TERRIFYING. And that is an understatement.  I'll never be able to forget that image of my baby or the helpless feeling.  The seizure lasted for less than a minute, but it felt like an eternity.  By that time, I had whisked him into the bathroom to lay him on the floor, sprinkle some cold water on him and put an ice pack on him to try and help him cool down.  He would not open his eyes or speak.  He only responded to the ice pack and would try to move away from it (this made me feel a little better - he was responding to something).  I was begging, pleading for him to open his eyes.  The ambulance arrived and they came right in, picked him up, and carried him onto the gurney.  He cried when they did this, but still would not open his eyes or speak.  It was 5 minutes before we got to the hospital (Stephen followed in the car with Riley) when he finally came to (about 30-40 minutes after the beginning of the seizure).  He looked around and had this "where the heck AM I?!" expression on his face.  Trying to hold back the tears, I said "you get to ride in an ambulance today buddy, isn't that neat?!"  He was less than impressed as he was hooked up to monitors and he was scared.  We got to the hospital and they ran several tests trying to rule everything out.  The conclusion: he had a febrile seizure due to a rapid spike in fever caused by croup.  I. hate. croup.  We left the hospital around 11:30 and he has been his happy-go-lucky self ever since!  I pray he won't EVER have one of those seizures again.  Kids these days... sheesh!

So, we took it easy the rest of Saturday and were looking forward to a stress free and healthy Easter Sunday celebrating all that day brings as well as Stephen's birthday.  Well, the Easter bunny came to our house (pictures to come!) and Will and Riley loved all the little goodies the Easter bunny left.  We were getting ready for church when my Mom calls (around 8:30 or so... I think).  "Kathy, we're in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, your Dad has had severe chest pain, arm pain and is sweating profusely - I think he's had a heart attack." Cue the panic, tears and uncertainty...again.  So, Riley and I race to get ready and head to Aiken leaving Will and Stephen behind to pray for us at church.  We get to Aiken and I get to see my Dad.  He says "if I had just waited 15 more minutes, I wouldn't have worried about coming to the hospital."  Oh really, Dad, considering when Mom heard you yelling her name she ran in to find you gray and, although you were awake and alert, your pulse was so weak she couldn't find it, I'm glad you didn't do that... parents these days...I tell ya.  Well, they waited and waited and waited and (you get the picture) finally after 24 hours, the cardiologist comes in to evaluate my Dad.  The ekg showed "something" but they weren't sure what it was yet.  So, they did a heart cath and found that he needed a stent in his right coronary artery, but that there was NO DAMAGE DONE to his heart!  PRAISE THE LORD AND HALLELUJAH!   So, what could have been horrible endings to a stressful weekend, turned out to be pretty okay!