My Week at a Glance

August 31, 2012

This week marked the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year. Even though I was super busy with the start of school, I LOVE teaching at the high school level. I am really enjoying what and who I'm teaching this year. It makes it pretty easy to get up and want to go to work.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I was forced to take off work today for an appointment with a cardiologist. My appointment was this morning at 10, so I took off a full day because I had no idea how long it would take. Justin went with me since he is finally working back in town!

The first thing the nurses did when I arrived was take my vitals and asked a million questions. After being interrogated, they hooked me up for an EKG. I was shocked that the test only took about 2 minutes. After the test was complete, the nurse didn't tell me anything. Shortly after, a nurse practitioner came into the room to ask even more questions and to tell me that my EKG showed that my heart got out of rhythm in one place. She discussed that my doctor would likely want to perform an echocardiogram and make me wear a monitor for a week or two to find out more information. She also discussed a few medications that would be safe to take during pregnancy if we have to go that route.

Next we finally got to meet our doctor. His name is Dr. Ganeshram. He asked if I have ever had any fainting spells before, and I have-but they were long before my pregnancy. He asked if I had ever seen a cardiologist about it, and when I said no, he looked at me like I was a complete moron. We had gone to a doctor about it, but they always thought it was neurological and related to migraines. He also asked if I've had any blood clots....ummm, yeah I have one right now as a matter of fact. It's a subchorionic hemorrhage in the placenta. Anyway, he proceeded to explain that he saw a spot in the EKG that had a short interval that gets the rhythm a bit off. He also explained that pregnancy is a huge strain on the heart because it has to pump blood to both me and the baby now. That is why my symptoms have most likely been more noticeable. He scheduled another appointment for next week (the same day as my next ultrasound) to do the echocardiogram and to give me my monitor. I will then have to return the following week to get some results. That's about all we know for now...I'll keep everyone updated as we find out more.

After the appointment, we came back home. I planned to take a nap this afternoon, but my life decided to get even more dramatic instead. I will warn readers that this might be TMI for some people, so proceed with caution! When I arrived home from our appointment, I had to go to the bathroom. While in there, I noticed a tiny bit of bleeding. Of course I freaked out a little, but tried to reassure myself that it was just the subchorionic hemorrhage that they had previously warned me about. I called my doctor, and they told me it was probably just the hemorrhage and was nothing to be concerned about unless it got worse. That was not an acceptable answer for me, so I requested that they see me since it is Friday and I sure don't want something major to happen on the weekend. They didn't have any spots open for a sonogram but agreed to see me and find the baby's heartbeat on a Doppler. I rushed back to Wichita to have the baby checked out. I had to see a different doctor because mine was unavailable, but I didn't care. She began trying to find the heartbeat using the Doppler, and it was taking her forever! She searched for about 5 minutes with no avail. Finally about 8-10 minutes into it, she found it. She couldn't even get the reading because it quickly disappeared. She began searching again and spotted it pretty quickly this time. She said he/she must have been very active and that is why it was so difficult to keep it on the heartbeat. She got a reading in the 160's, which is perfect. Thank you God!

Next week I have my OB and cardiologist appointments. I'm very excited about seeing our baby again, and I'm ready to find out more about the heart issue. I'm praying that it is just the strain of the pregnancy and that we don't have to do anything about it. Any prayers you could send our way will be much appreciated!