Early Hospital "Tour"

We have our hospital tour set up for mid-May, but I didn't realize I'd be making a visit sooner than that.

On Thursday night, I got home and did what I normally do...made dinner with J, did a few loads of laundry, watched tv, but around 8:30pm, my heart starting racing. Not even sure racing is a good word to describe it, as it felt as though my heart was going to jump out of my chest and in fact, if you looked at my chest, you could see it pounding through my shirt. I figured it would slow down, so I sat down to relax. It was about 10:00pm and my hands started to tingle and that's when I really started to worry. I wasn't out of breath and my chest didn't hurt, but I knew this was bad. I went and got J and told him that something was very wrong and we needed to go in. He put his hand on my chest and immediately got dressed and got the car ready; he also knew this was not normal. While I got my shoes on and grabbed my purse, I almost passed out. We were very close to calling the ambulance but knew that since we lived so close to MG Hospital, we'd probably get there faster than waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

So Jason had his test-run drive to the hospital and he did great. He stayed calm (other than driving 75 mph the whole way) and tried to keep me calm. By this point I was bawling and so very concerned about Baby B. If my heart was beating this hard, what was this doing to him/her?!

We got to the Emergency Room in record time and they immediately wheeled us up to the Labor & Delivery floor. Again, I was NOT ready for a tour of this floor; I'm only 26 weeks!! They got me into an examination room and hooked me up to a baby monitor so we could watch the baby's heartbeat for any irregularity. As the nurse was hooking it up, it took her a few minutes to find the heartbeat. I was hysterically bawling and SO scared. Thankfully she found the heartbeat and the relief we felt was indescribable. Baby B was just fine, his/her heart rate was totally normal. Now it was time to worry about Mom.

I was wheeled back to the Emergency Room and quickly put on heart monitors where it was easy to see there was something very wrong. A normal heart rate is between 60-100 (dependant on age, gender, etc) and mine was erratically jumping from 120 to high 150's. To track the heart rhythm and further diagnose and treat, they did an EKG, which made them believe I had Atrial Fibrillation. Although this isn't unheard of, I posed a problem to the staff. I had a baby in my belly so there were two lives to worry about. They couldn't do the regular treatments and needed to consult with a cardiologist and OB before doing anything.

The ER Dr. was continually on the phone with the on-call cardiologist and OB to discuss what our next steps would be as he couldn't just let this continue on. My heart was working much too hard and allowing it to happen too long could cause long-term damage.

Their first attempt at trying to get my heart into rhythm was by putting a drug into my IV that would stop my heart and re-start it. Yes, STOP MY HEART. I continually questioned the Dr. to ensure my baby would be safe. I had to be hooked up to defibrillator pads as a precaution in case my heart wouldn't re-start and the room was now full of staff to be there in case of an emergency. At this point I lost it. I don't think I've ever been so afraid in my life. Seeing my husband at my feet, rubbing them to console me, a room full of hospital staff staring at me and defibrillator pads on my chest....was this really happening?! I calmed myself down as I knew I had to do this, and knew I needed to be calm to do it. After a few deep breaths (and prayers), it was go-time. Perhaps it was a good thing I didn't have a lot of time to really think about what was going to happen.
The drug hit my veins and the feeling was horrible. I felt my whole body go limp, like I was falling. I guess passing out is the closest feeling and as soon as it hit me, I could feel the blood flowing in my veins again and unfortunately, my heart racing again. It didn't work. We attempted this one more time (and I was much less scared), but again, it didn't work. I immediately requested to hear Baby B again, and was calmed hearing the consistent, healthy heartbeat. Baby B was a fighter indeed.

The next step was to shock my heart back into rhythm, but with Baby B on board, this wasn't an option right now. So we decided to get me on an IV drip with a medicine that would gradually slow my heart so it could get itself back into rhythm. I was going to be admitted to ICU and monitored all night and finally at 2am, we had a room and were exhausted. But how do you sleep when you feel like your heart is going to jump out of your chest and your blood pressure is being checked automatically every 15 minutes?!
There were Dr's and nurses checking on me continually throughout the night, though I think I got about 2 hours of sleep, as did Jason on the little couch in our room.

The morning started early and I was able to hear Baby B again then had an echo cardiogram (ultrasound of the heart). Of course the tech couldn't tell me anything and just like a regular ultrasound, I couldn't really figure what I was looking at and if it was normal. So now we just had to wait for the cardiologist and OB to make their rounds.

Finally the cardiologist came around 1:30pm. Time for some answers. She assured me that everything we were doing was okay for the baby but we needed to make some big decisions. The echo gram showed that my heart was still functioning as it should, again re-assuring me that Baby was getting all the blood flow it needed. Thank Goodness! I won't go into detail on what Atrial Fibrillation is, or how the heart works with it, but to sum it up, this wasn't anything abnormal and my life wasn't at risk, but we needed to treat me without harming Baby B. We had a few options:
1 - continue current medication to slow the heart so it could convert back into rhythm and meet with cardiologist on Monday. If I wasn't back into rhythm by Monday, she would do a scope (down my throat) to confirm there were no clots, and then knock me out and shock the heart back into rhythm
2 - do the scope and shock that afternoon

We choose Option 1. We knew it was less risky and were fine taking it slow. They boosted my Potassium and Magnesium levels (which were low and this could help my heart convert) and then bumped up the meds a bit. So now it was time to sit and wait.

Around 3:30pm, our Pastor stopped in to say hello and say a prayer with us. My Mother had obviously already done her chain of calls :)  It was a nice visit and made us both feel good. Amazing how the presence of a Pastor can calm you. After he left I got up to use the restroom and stretch my legs and when I sat back down on the bed, Jason said "Whoa, look at your heart monitor!" I surely owe the Pastor and God MUCH gratitude as our prayers were answered.
My heart rate was under 100...and not going anywhere. Could this be happening?! Did my heart convert back?! I told him to sit down and not look at the monitor for a bit, I didn't want to jinx it! But sure enough, it was back to normal!!!

Just then, the OB came in to meet with us and we eagerly told the ICU nurse the OB the good news! But first we needed to talk to the OB about all that went on and get reassurance that Baby B was going to be okay. She had gone through my charts and approved everything the ER Dr and cardiologist had done and said the risk of anything happening to Baby B was very small. Again, great news!!

So here we are, 20 hours later with a normal heart rate and a safe baby in my belly. SIGH...we can now breath and relax...and go HOME!

I'm now on medication to control my heart rate and will still meet with the cardiologist on Monday as a follow-up. We're not sure how long I'll be on the medication and have alot of questions on how to prevent this from happening again (if possible), etc. But for now, I'm just happy to be home and that it's all over. J was such a trooper and never left my side. I could see the worry in his face while this was all happening, but he kept his calm and comforted me. I couldn't have done this without him and love him more and more every day.

Here is more information on Atrial Fibrillation.  They aren't sure why it happened or if it'll happen again. It could have been triggered by the pregnancy since my heart is pumping 2-3 times more blood than normal and I could've had an episode in the past and not known it since my heart put itself back into rhythm without medical intervention. We also don't know if this was a fluke or it will happen again. All I know is I will continue on with my life as I did before and am thankful it wasn't any worse!