There I was. Enjoying the high school graduation of my brother in law Patrick. Everything seemed normal one minute, then as I walked down the steps to take his picture, I felt my heart pumping wildly and throbbing in my neck. My heart beat was pounding one on top of the other. A familiar problem; one I had learned to live with since I was about 16 years old.
I sat down wondering if I could "stop the problem" before it continued to go on. However, if it was like other times, I knew that once it was in "fast mode" it could not be stopped. My only hope would be to sleep that night and pray it would go away.
As a teenager, my problem would usually be triggered during a stressful day at work or during a rehearsal for a play. It would last maybe a night, but usually went away by the next morning. I passed this off as some form of stress or anxiety and brushed it off as "nothing."
As I got older, it came pretty regularly off and on, but with no major changes - until I got pregnant. I can recall it being easier to be "set off." I would walk up the stairs, even slowly, and my heart got stuck in the fast paced mode. I was very fearful to what this was doing to my little baby inside my tummy. I worried that she would be affected by it, and then I realized I might have a problem.
I mentioned it to my Certified Nurse Midwife at a visit. My midwife simply passed it off as "something that happens with pregnancy," and it was "perfectly normal." I tried not to worry.
Pregnancy aggravated the problem, and it did not improve once Danelle was out. In fact, it had only gotten worse. Now a problem that had once only lasted until I slept, was starting to continue for days NONSTOP, and it was happening almost every month for two to three days average. Only had a new fear because it was lasting extra long, I worried that my heart would not be able to handle it , and end my life. I could not bear the thought of having an accident and possibly dying right there in front of my baby and not being a part of her life.
But this day, after the graduation, I couldn't shake it. It kept going on and on. I desperately tried to relax, sleep, and just take it easy in hopes it would calm down my heart. At night I would take sleeping pills hoping they would do the trick. Even with sleeping pills, I felt like I was running a marathon and I couldn't relax enough to sleep. I got two hours sleep average, only to wake up continuing the race.
Finally (Day 3), I called my Mom's nurse friend, Susan. I was desperate, and worried. I called her hoping she might be able to give me some answers. Maybe prescribe me something to make it better (maybe it was still anxiety or stress and a simple pill would help). She told me of a woman who came into their office with a problem that sounded the same, she was scared, and very upset. They sent her to the hospital for medication.
One more night I thought. Maybe all I needed was one more night. Maybe it would go away if I waited one more night. I remembering crying myself to sleep honestly wondering if I would wake up, and if I should have gone to the ER that night. I told myself that I HAD to go in the morning if the problem was happening. I had to SHOW a doctor what was going on while it was happening to be taken seriously.
The next morning there were no changes. I woke up after only a couple hours sleep, and knew I had to go into work before I went to the doctor. My appointment was at 3:00. I was off work at 1:00. A friend was babysitting Danelle, and I was curious to see what my blood pressure and pulse rate looked like so I could tell the doctors. I remember driving to Rite Aid, Smiths, and Walmart, all three blood pressure machines said "ERROR." I began to wonder if I was having a heart attack or something serious.
3:00, I sat in the doctors chair. The Nurse had already taken my pulse. "120," she said, but that she couldn't know because it was going too fast. Dr. Chipman came in, and he took my pulse."it's much faster than that," he said. He asked basic questions like how long I had this going on and how often. Finally he said, "Laura, I think you are having an arrhythmia problem, and you need to go to the hospital right now. Go straight over. I will meet you there."
Scared and crying profusely, I got in my car (which later Dr. Chipman said he would have rather had me ride in an ambulance) and drove across to the Mountain View Hospital. I was alone. I had never felt so alone. I didn't know who to call. I didn't know if I should call anyone. It might be nothing. They gave me an EKG, and I waited for a doctor to tell me what was wrong. Finally Shayne came to the hospital just in time for me to get the phone call from Dr. Chipman. "Laura, you have a problem called Supra Ventricular Tachycardia and you need to go to the ER of the hospital and they will give you medicine. I will see you soon."
All I heard was "Tachycardia" and assumed this meant cardic attack and I was worried sick that something serious was about to happen to me. As they wheeled me downstairs into my own private trauma room (not in a curtain area like I had been in years past), I could tell that this was an issue the hospital worker were taking very seriously. They wasted no time getting me undressed, and into a gown, and an IV in my arm. The monitor read 165 while resting.
My doctor came and along with the ER doctors and nursed, the ER door was closed, and they told me they were going to try a medicine first called ADENISINE. It must have been serious enough that they felt that had to have the room closed off, and I would be surrounded by people to help if something when wrong. The ER doctor told me that the medicine would feel unpleasant going in. Some described it as though someone were to sit right on their chest. However, if I had to describe it my heart slowed - possibly even stopped for about 6 seconds. My body felt weak, and felt difficutly breathing. My whole body felt dead and lifeless. It was a horrible feeling. It felt as though my body were completely still for 6 seconds, then my heart picked up it's usual pace. The idea was to stop the rythem in hopes it would start at a normal pace. I was in tears to find out they wanted to inject the medicine again. Again, 6 seconds, only this time I felt as though I could bear no more Adenisine.
I was laying flat, wondering what they were going to do next. I was emotional, and worried that i might need my heart electrically shocked to be put back into a normal pace. A doctor said to try a beta blocker, which they did through an IV. No improvement. After some time, they came in to give me a second dose. No improvement.
I remember telling the nurse I was scared to death for them to shock my heart to startle it to go into a normal rhythm. The nurse told me not to be afraid, I wouldn't feel it. I would be sedated, and it would help. Just hearing her tell me this, made me want to get off the table and run back home to my baby and pretend this wasn't happening.
Shayne and his mother were around me when all of the sudden it felt like my heart had stopped - my heart was still for a moment which was unsettling when I had it beating so fast. I immediately began to worry, and asked, "what happened? Am I ok???" A brief moment later the heart monitor now read, 95 bpm. I was out of the woods at this point - the hard part was over... or so I thought...... (to be continued.)
