I’m Home February 23, 2007
Free at last! They discharged me this morning. It felt so good to walk away from that IV machine. The final verdict is that tachycardia (rapid heart beat) is normal in pregnancy and should go away after I have the baby. For now I need to take the beta-blocker daily, drink lots of fluids, and take it easy. It is sometimes hard for me to ask for help or admit when I need to rest but I’ll have to learn to be ok with that.
After three days of lying around I am unbelievably exhausted by doing simple tasks, so I’m going to need to ease back in to normalcy. I wanted to go back to work today but my boss insisted I stay home and rest, so that’s what I plan to do - right after I take a shower!
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I would say I hope I can return the favor some day but I don’t wish that ordeal on anyone. This was the first time I ever had to stay in a hospital for any length of time and I can tell you I’ll have a lot more sympathy from now on for others who have to do the same. It’s no fun, that’s for sure. But I’m home now and happy to be so!
Day 3 in Confinement February 22, 2007
So I’ve been having these heart palpitations for about three weeks now. Every day or so, all of a sudden, my heart will start racing really fast and I’ll get really short of breath. It usually lasts about 15-20 minutes. Tuesday morning I had one of these episodes but it was different than all previous. In addition to the racing heart and shortness of breath I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded. It lasted about 45 minutes before I called the OB nurse to find out what I should do. She insisted I have someone take me to the emergency room.
Mike and I arrived at the E.R. at 10 am. In Lansing we have a health system that runs two hospitals; we went to the smaller of the two hospitals hoping to have a shorter wait time. Even with that we waited for two hours before they were able to place us in a room. I was hooked up to an IV and they took some blood samples for testing. I had an EKG, a dopplar of my legs, an x-ray of my chest, and a CT scan of my chest. They were mainly looking for blood clots but everything came back normal. After talking with my OB they decided to send me over to the larger hospital for more testing and monitoring and a consult with a cardiologist.
At 7:30 pm I was shuttled over in an ambulance to the larger hospital and placed in their E.R. More monitoring was done while they tried to decide which floor to admit me on. They weren’t sure whether I should be placed in prenatal special care or cardiology. In the end they decided it would be best to put me in cardiology and have special care nurses come down periodically to check on the baby’s heart rate. Baby’s heart rate is doing great, so that is reassuring.
By 1 am Wednesday morning I was settled into a permanent, private room. They brought in a cot for Mike to sleep on. He refuses to leave my side. He had to play for the dart league last night but only after securing a “babysitter” for me. Vicki and I had a great time last night; after she kicked my butt in Boggle we spent the rest of the night chatting.
Since being admitted they have done an echocardiogram but the rest of the time here has been monitoring of my heart and waiting for doctors to evaluate my situation and communicate with my OB. They haven’t said what could be causing this but the cardiologists say it can be rather common in pregnancy (though my OB seems to have some objections to that). They have put me on a beta blocker hoping that it will help to slow my heart rate. So far it has not worked, but I’m on a very small dose. My heart rate hovers around 110 bpm consistently (even when sleeping) and occasionally jumps to 130-140. When it jumps like that is when it gets very uncomfortable and I get dizzy, but I’m short of breath almost all the time.
All of the doctors have been really calm about the whole thing, but yet they are concerned at the same time. They believe there is no real threat to the baby and that I’m going to be fine. They just want to be absolutely sure before they send me home. So I’m on day three of this whole ordeal and I’m ready to go home and take a shower!
When I left the office Tuesday morning for the E.R. I told my coworkers I would be back later. What I meant was later that afternoon, not later this week. It’s killing me to have to be here, sitting and waiting, and thinking about all the work that is not getting done and will be waiting for me when I get back. I feel bad about leaving everyone in the office in the lurch. I somehow feel responsible, even though I know this is something I have no control over. Thankfully I work with some very supportive people. My boss has assured me that they are doing fine without me and I need to just relax and not worry about work. Easier said than done but I’m trying.
If you’re wondering how I’m posting all this while in the hospital, Mike had the bright idea to bring in the CADA darts laptop. It has a wireless card and the hospital has a public wireless network, so now I have access to the outside world! Of course I have a phone in my room but that’s only good for making local calls. This is a great way to update my family and out of town friends, don’t you think?
They’re talking like I’m going to be able to go home today but they said that yesterday so I’m not holding my breath. We’ll see. I’ll try to keep you all posted. Be praying!!
Update: It’s still Thursday, it’s 7 pm and we are still waiting to hear from the cardiologist. Nurses have been in and out all day and they assure us that the cardiologist has not forgotten us and will be up soon. I guess he keeps getting called into emergency. No one can tell us if I’m going home tonight or not. Looks like I might be going on Day 4.
I flunked my first test February 19, 2007
I flunked my first test today. It was a glucose test. My blood count is great but my sugar is all out of whack. I wasn’t really expecting that but in a way I’m not surprised. Maybe that’s what’s causing these heart palpitations. I have to have more testing done this week to rule out diabetes. I’ll be on a special diet for three days and then I have to spend a morning at the lab getting blood drawn every hour. I should ask them if they can draw it on the 8’s just for fun.
Added: The nurse told me to stay away from refined sugars and what do I find in the conference room at work this morning? Krispy Kreme donuts. The classic glazed, my favorite. Darn you, Temptation!
Our First Valentine’s Day February 14, 2007
Mike and I don’t generally do much for days like today. We don’t really need the greeting card/chocolate/flower/jewelry industry telling us when to let each other know how much we love each other. When my grandpa officiated our wedding he gave us a few pieces of advice and one was to tell each other “I love you” at least once a day. Almost 8 years later we still abide by that.
But on to my story…
The first year we were married (newlyweds, ahhh) I wanted to do something special for Mike on Valentine’s Day. We had been seriously stressed about money around this time and on that particular day we had about $2.00 to our name. We had recently committed to not using credit cards anymore (sidenote: that was a commitment that lasted about a year and had to be revisited several years later) so I had to be creative and resourceful. Since the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach I was going to surprise him with a delicious feast. I still had those steaks in the freezer that Mom had given us several months before and I had an extra box of cherry-chip cake mix (Mike’s favorite). I toted my $2 to the store and picked up a box of Jiffy frosting mix and the cheapest side dish from a box I could find. I had just enough money.
When I returned home I pulled out my “Everything You Need To Know” Betty Crocker cookbook and whipped up a nice marinade for the steaks. Since we we lived in a one bedroom garden-level apartment I couldn’t grill the steaks, so I would have to broil them instead. While the steaks were marinading I mixed the cake batter and threw it into the oven to bake. I did a bit of tidying up and set the table for dinner. Mike would be home soon so I put the steaks in to begin broiling.
To this day I still don’t know what went wrong. It all happened so fast and yet it seemed to go in slow motion. Smoke started to seep from my oven and in a matter of minutes it had filled the entire apartment (all three rooms). Mike would be surprised, but it wasn’t exactly the surprise I was going for. I wish I could have seen the look on his face when he walked in the door, but the smoke was just too thick. He hurried in and we both ran around in a frenzy checking the oven for fire and opening the windows. We disconnected the smoke alarm but we couldn’t do anything about our neighbor’s smoke alarm. Yes, the smoke had risen to new heights! We could hear the smoke alarm beeping obnoxiously from the apartment above us.
We had left the steaks in the broiler because after all, we did need to eat. We checked on the steaks once the frenzy had subsided. They were done broiling, the potatoes were done doing what they do… we were ready to eat! Since the smoke was still pretty thick near the kitchen, we prepared our plates and brought them to the windowsill to eat. Remember, it’s a “garden-level” apartment, meaning it’s half basement and our windows open up to the ground, so we had wide windowsills that turned out to be just the perfect height for shoveling food in. We had to stand to eat but we didn’t mind. The steaks were delicious! We scarfed them down and moved on to cake for dessert. I was afraid the smoke would have ruined the flavor of the cake but that turned out great too!
The best part about the whole ordeal was that for 30 solid minutes we weren’t stressed about our jobs or worrying about our money problems. When we stood at the windowsill to eat, we were just enjoying each other’s company and laughing about the whole thing. It’s what I call my “Melt With You” moment. You know the song: Modern English, ”I’ll stop the world and melt with you”. The song makes me think of that night because for a brief moment the world did seem to stop, and it was just the two of us. Two newlyweds deeply in love, standing to eat our meal on thrift shop plates off a windowsill as if we were in a four star restaurant. And the best part is that our life together has only become richer over the years. We are more in love today than we were back then.
Why do we buy our kids toys… February 13, 2007
…when they are so easily amused with free stuff? Like this, for example:
Josh had a blast at Aunt Mindy’s house collecting dust and cat hair. He affectionately named this furball ”Busty” (a cross between dusty and Buster the cat). He took it home in a plastic baggy and made me promise that I wouldn’t sweep up the cat hair so that he would have plenty to add to his collection the next time he came to visit. Now that is a promise I can keep.
Tax Time February 13, 2007
Tax season is in full swing! I’ve already completed two returns, am working on several more, and have more coming in this week. I love it!
If you dread doing your tax returns the way I dread grocery shopping (nice segue from the previous post), why don’t you think about having someone else prepare them for you? Someone else like me, perhaps? Need a good reason? Here are a few.
Reasons to hire me as your tax preparer:
- I enjoy tax preparation way more than you do.
- I’m extremely thorough.
- My rates are surprisingly reasonable.
- Baby Luke needs a crib!
That’s my shameless solicitation. Short and sweet.
Grocery shopping is scary, people! February 13, 2007
I dread grocery shopping. Always have, really. I get overwhelmed by the aisles, the shelves stacked high, the people everywhere. And the placement of products never really makes sense to me. I once spent 20 minutes trying to find a jar of olives. What saved me was a phone call to my sister to ask where the olives might be located. “Probably by the vinegar,” she says, like it’s just common sense. Of course. By the vinegar. Why didn’t I think of that?
I think this photo might convey the feeling I get when I walk into a grocery store. Of course my view is from much lower to the ground, but you get the idea.
Overwhelming, right? How could anyone focus in that environment? Even if I have a list (which I usually do) I still end up passing things by, only having to turn around and revisit that end of the store. It’s exhausting. Which is why I love my local Aldi. They have four simple aisles to maneuver and after just a few trips to their store you pretty much know where everything is. One brand of each item means no standing around squinting to do the math and figure out how much is that per ounce and which is the better deal? I can fill up a whole cart for under $75 that will feed us for weeks.
Prayer at work works too February 12, 2007
Last Friday I was stressing and venting to my boss about our cash flow and some of the receivables I was trying to collect on. He interrupted me mid-sentence by grabbing my hand and started right in with a prayer that God would bless us with checks and that customers would pay and pay early even. I was taken aback, to be honest. I know my boss is a praying man, but he’s never really done anything like that before. Even though it was a tad awkward, it left me with a familiar sense of peace and I was able to get back to my work without that stress resting on my shoulders.
This afternoon I had to let my boss know that our little prayer request worked, because we received 9 checks in the mail today, and several of them were checks I didn’t expect to receive for at least another couple of weeks! So we are going to have to remember to say that prayer more often.
Why doesn’t it ever occur to me to petition God about work stuff? It’s strange really, because I pray to him about everything else in my life. I ask him for blessings in my personal life, why not in my professional life too? After all, my job directly affects my personal life. Wouldn’t I want to ask that the company I am working for be successful? I think I will more often now.
