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On Monday, I had a post-partum follow up with my cardiologist. While I was pregnant, I was diagnosed with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) which is just a long scary name for rapid heart beat. Something I think I have always had actually but just made worse from the pregnancy (Easton's - NOT Grayson's.) During this pregnancy, it was not unusual for my heartbeat to be in the lower 100s or even as high as 155 while I was sick with bronchitis. I would be walking around the store, start to feel strange, check my pulse and it would be in the 130s.
Then during my csection it spiked to 188, and that made us all nervous. The anesthesiologist said I needed to see a specialist. I told her I had been. My OB had even mentioned an ablation procedure to me which really just made me worry. How did I go from having an elevated heart rate for as long as I can remember to having heart surgery?!
To top it all off, I saw my family doctor a few weeks ago, and she indicated that it could be potentially risky to have another baby with heart rates like mine. I mean, we hadn't really been planning on having another baby (considering we just had one and the experience is still fresh in my mind) but I like to at least have the option open!
So when I met with my cardiologist, he listened to me then ordered an EKG. My heartbeat was in the 90s during the appointment - probably somewhat elevated from nerves. (I check my pulse every day and it runs from the 60s to the 80s.) He looked back at the results of the holter and said he saw some areas of rapid heart beat. He wrote me a prescription for a beta blocker and then said he wanted me to wear an event monitor for three weeks. He said he wanted to see if the beta blocker would work.
THREE WEEKS?!?! THREE WEEKS?! I had flashbacks of the uncomfortable holter monitor and I was just pregnant while I wore that, and I hated it for all 24 hours I wore it.
I almost fell off the examination table. I had to fight back a wave of panic.
Before I left the hospital that day, I was set up with an event monitor. I have four electrodes on my torso - one visible on up by my shoulder - I am wearing the monitor around my neck on a lanyard. A cell phone is synced with the monitor, and I have to have that within 10 feet of me at all times or it "yells" at me.
It is uncomfortable, and it makes it difficult to pick up and hold my babies. I am trying to keep it hidden because I don't want Grayson to yank on any wires or steal the cell phone and try to play Talking Tom on it.;)
I defaulted to my usual feelings of anger - very similar to how I felt those first dozen times I pricked my finger for testing my blood sugar during my gestational diabetes phase. Mike reassured me that this is just another thing I have to deal with - just like GD - that it will go by fast.
I hope it does. If you think of it, please say a little prayer for me over the next 3 weeks. I am really going to need them.
Then during my csection it spiked to 188, and that made us all nervous. The anesthesiologist said I needed to see a specialist. I told her I had been. My OB had even mentioned an ablation procedure to me which really just made me worry. How did I go from having an elevated heart rate for as long as I can remember to having heart surgery?!
To top it all off, I saw my family doctor a few weeks ago, and she indicated that it could be potentially risky to have another baby with heart rates like mine. I mean, we hadn't really been planning on having another baby (considering we just had one and the experience is still fresh in my mind) but I like to at least have the option open!
So when I met with my cardiologist, he listened to me then ordered an EKG. My heartbeat was in the 90s during the appointment - probably somewhat elevated from nerves. (I check my pulse every day and it runs from the 60s to the 80s.) He looked back at the results of the holter and said he saw some areas of rapid heart beat. He wrote me a prescription for a beta blocker and then said he wanted me to wear an event monitor for three weeks. He said he wanted to see if the beta blocker would work.
THREE WEEKS?!?! THREE WEEKS?! I had flashbacks of the uncomfortable holter monitor and I was just pregnant while I wore that, and I hated it for all 24 hours I wore it.
I almost fell off the examination table. I had to fight back a wave of panic.
Before I left the hospital that day, I was set up with an event monitor. I have four electrodes on my torso - one visible on up by my shoulder - I am wearing the monitor around my neck on a lanyard. A cell phone is synced with the monitor, and I have to have that within 10 feet of me at all times or it "yells" at me.
It is uncomfortable, and it makes it difficult to pick up and hold my babies. I am trying to keep it hidden because I don't want Grayson to yank on any wires or steal the cell phone and try to play Talking Tom on it.;)
I defaulted to my usual feelings of anger - very similar to how I felt those first dozen times I pricked my finger for testing my blood sugar during my gestational diabetes phase. Mike reassured me that this is just another thing I have to deal with - just like GD - that it will go by fast.
I hope it does. If you think of it, please say a little prayer for me over the next 3 weeks. I am really going to need them.
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