It's been a while. I tried really hard to stay off of my computer while in Montana. It was good to get away, but that is one long drive for a pregnant lady :-)
I went in to my 24-week appointment this morning and unfortunately we got some not-so-good news. In addition to an arrhythmia we were already aware of, our baby's heart rate is now over 200—sustained. It isn't fluctuating up from a normal level, it's just staying there. So my midwife referred me to a perinatologist at the hospital in Idaho Falls. And since the heart rate was so high, they had to see me right away.
Fortunately, I was able to drop Ella off with a friend and Brady drove in from work. I had to have another ultrasound and all of the baby's measurements are right on track and she weighs in at about 1 pound 9 ounces. Then the doctor took a look at the heart... there are no visible defects. It's just beating at around 230 bpm—almost 100 bmp over what it should be. So now we're being referred to a pediatric cardiologist in Salt Lake City and the plan is to have an appointment some time this week.
So the diagnosis is supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). The cause is unknown at this point, but the hope is that this will just remedy itself and that the cardiologist won't find any abnormalities that the last two ultrasounds have missed. But if it doesn't go away, I'll have to go on medication (after several tests to see if I'm actually ok to take the meds) to try to get the heart rate to go down. Let's just hope it doesn't come to this. The scariest part was hearing the perinatologist tell me that if I was further along, they would just deliver the baby immediately. But instead, we're left trying to fix the problem in utero.
Until then, I'll keep you posted.
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