Emotional Roller Coaster

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting an update. And we're finally ready to give one. Yesterday was an extremely emotional day and we chose not to answer phone calls/emails/texts, as we really weren't ready to talk about the prognosis.

Yesterday morning, we found that the baby had come out of the SVT and instead had a very low, irregular heartbeat. The initial reaction by the OBs was to wheel me over to labor and delivery and frighten me with an imminent c-section delivery. I had no less than seven doctors in the room with me, readying me for steroid shots, an IV and another ultrasound. Fortunately, the attending OB decided that I needed to be seen by the cardiologist to determine what was really going on with the baby's heart. So I was wheeled over to Primary Children's to have yet another echo. The findings there were even more grim. While the low heart rate and strange rhythm were not worrisome, the fact the the baby's heart wasn't squeezing/pumping sufficiently was very problematic. Her reaction to the medication, sotalol, was not typical and the cardiologist believed there might be a problem with the muscle of the heart. And we were told that our baby would probably not survive—inside or out. So most of yesterday, we prepared for the worst. I was taken off of all medication and just told to wait.

We had another echo on her heart later that day and there was some improvement in the pumping, while her heart rate remained low. Again, we were told to wait. But at least there was more hope.

This morning, I had another ultrasound that showed that the baby was still in the strange rhythm, but the OB thought that she was pumping even better (though still not back to normal). By the time we went in for our 10:30 echo, the baby's heart rate had gone back up to 212, but the pump had improved a little more. So this time, the cardiologists were hopeful that perhaps the less efficient pump was probably caused by the baby's heart being tired from having to pump so quickly for so long. The plan now is to start me back on the sotalol, but at a lower dose to see if we can get her out of the SVT again to give her a rest and give her time to recover. It's still day to day, so any long term plans are merely speculation.

We will be here at least a few more days (but probably more) and will have to miss Ella's birthday tomorrow. I hope she can understand and have fun without us. I miss her so very, very much. I miss my own bed. Let's just hope we can get home soon.

Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts. I apologize that we can't be more responsive. But with the ever-changing prognosis, it's very difficult for us to have to go over the emotions again and again by responding to everyone individually. This blog is really the best place for updates, as the next few days could be rather busy/exhausting.