Abnormal Rhythm

Yesterday was a very long day filled with many unexpected things so I will start at the beginning. On Friday I had a headache all day long and by the afternoon my throat was killing me and I just didn't feel well. I went to bed around 8pm and was asleep a little after 11pm, but woke up at 1am with an extremely upset stomach and a fever with chills. Finally, I was able to get to sleep for about an hour before Ben had to leave for work.

I decided to get the boys and myself dressed then head to Express Care to checked out because if I had the Flu I was hoping to get Tamiflu to help get rid of it sooner. They did a Flu test and Strep test which both came back negative. The doctor did the normal physical exam, but when she listened to my breathing she paused and listened to my heart for a while. Then she asked if anybody had ever told me I had an abnormal heart beat rhythm. I told her nobody had ever told me that and it should have been caught with all of the doctors appointments and surgeries I have had in the past. She wanted to do an EKG just to check my rhythm, but she said it could be nothing. So they got it all set up, the test started but then the machine died after capturing 4 heart beats. We waited around while they tried to fix it, but nothing worked. At that point we had been there for almost 2 hours so the boys were getting cranky. The doctor then came back and said she was sending me to the ER because the 4 heart beats they did get very abnormal so she wanted it to get checked out more in-depth. They handed my a copy of my chart with instructions to go directly to the ER.

The boys and I went to the car and I freaked out because I was not going to the ER alone with the boys. After making some calls we had a plan. I drove to Rich & Laura's house and met Ben there (he was working in DC). The boys stayed there while Ben and I went to the ER at Anne Arundel Medical Center. I got checked in very quickly and taken straight back to the EKG room. Once the test was done they put me directly into a room in the ER. The nurse got me all hooked up and at that point my heart rate was 140 and I was showing an abnormal rhythm on the monitor. The doctor eventually came in to examine me and look over my EKG and what not. He explained that my heart rate was way too high (normal 60-100), that I had something called Bigeminy PVC rhythm(every other heart beat was an abnormal one called a PVC), and when listening to my heart beat with a stethoscope it was skipping beats. My blood pressure was completely normal along with my respiratory rate being normal. He said since I was not having any other symptoms such as pain, dizziness, or passing out that these could all be fine as long as there was no underlying heart issues. He ordered some basic blood work along with all of the cardiac enzyme blood work. He explained that if a person has any type of heart muscle breakdown (such as heart attack) it releases enzymes into the blood stream and that is what the cardiac enzyme testing would look for. He said it was to rule out a silent heart attack. Then he said once the blood work was back they might need to do some x-rays, but in the meantime he wanted me to get an IV with fluids because I was slightly dehydrated.

The blood work took about an hour or so to come back. During that time the nurses and doctors had all switched so now I had a new nurse and new doctor. Of course, the new doctor came to my room just as I had left the room to go to the bathroom (the fluids were definitely working!). So we waited around for a while longer until the doctor came back. When she did come in the room she commented that my heart rate was still too high, but had at least come down to 120. She asked how I felt and I told her I was feeling the same, sore throat, headache and upset stomach. I also said that with everyone asking me if I had chest pain I had started to think I was, but not really sure since I thought maybe I should be having chest pain and she laughed. She said all of the blood work came back completely normal and she could discharge me. Ben and I were finally in the car heading to dinner at 6:15pm. The day started out at Express Care in Bel Air at 9:15am and ended leaving the ER in Annapolis at 6:15pm....what a long, stressful and tiring day!

We went and had dinner with Rich, Laura, Haleigh and the boys. Before going to the ER Zak had picked up on stuff going on because he was saying things like "Mommy go to hospital for doctor to give her heart a band aid and feel better." so I wanted him to see that I was fine (the boys were going to spend the night at their house). When Zak saw me he said "Doctor make you feel better and give you band aid?" which was very cute.

I am relieved to know I didn't have a heart attack, but I am now paranoid and worried as to why all of a sudden my heart is skipping beats, my heart rate is so fast, and I have this Bigeminy rhythm. I have been talking for a few months about going to my doctor and asking them to check my thyroid because I have been experiencing somethings that could be a sign of Hyperthyroidism. Also, my mom has had thyroid issues forever (she had Grave's Disease) which tends to run in families as well as thyroid issues being common for Diabetics. One of the possible signs of Hyperthyroidism is a fast heart and PVCs. So I plan to get that done as soon as possible. The other reason I am scared is because I couldn't tell my heart rate was that fast even though it is odd because when I had worked out at the gym when I got my heart rate up into the 140s while running I could definitely feel it racing and I can't feel my heart skipping beats either. So now it makes me paranoid that I won't notice if something else changes.

Spring, Super Moon & Record High Temperature

I am going to do this a little out of order, but that is ok. First, the boys have both been battling some nasty diarrhea the last few days. Because of this Ryder won't be able to go to school tomorrow since he has to be diarrhea (vomit and fever as well) free for at least 24 hours before going back to school. So we are starting a strict BRAT diet for them, giving Probiotics, avoiding all lactose, and giving them Pepto. I hope this ends soon because Ryder is experiencing the worst diaper rash right now.

On Sunday we enjoyed our free Rita's Italian Ice to celebrate the first day of Spring. The boys picked their flavor according to the color...Ryder got Blueberry because he wanted blue and Zak got Mango because he wanted orange. I got sugar-free pink lemonade and Ben got wild cherry. It was chilly out so Ben is the only one who actually finished his whole cup, but we all enjoyed it.

On Friday we actually set a new record high temperature! It was 81 degrees and the old record was 80. It was so nice outside. We had planned to take the boys to the playground when Ben got home from work since he left early and would get home early, this is his one day a month he knows this because he has this same job every third Friday of the month. Well, it was not meant to be this month because just as we were getting ready to leave Ben's boss called and said he had to go back to work because the other tech had gotten behind. The boys threw a massive tantrum and just lost their minds, rolling around the floor screaming they needed daddy. It was a disaster. I kept telling them we could still go to the playground, but they didn't want to. Finally I got them calmed down and we went to the playground. They both had a blast! It was not a perfect trip though because about 5 minutes after we got there Zak had to go to the bathroom and we quickly found out they were still closed at the playground...the sign said closed through March. So we had to get in the car and drive to a public bathroom then went back. About 45 minutes later I was sitting with Ryder in one of the tunnels and his nose started to bleed so we had to get to the car and deal with that and then headed home.

After we got home the boys played outside for a while. They each took a turn with Zak's roller skates and then played on their scooters also. Ben did get home while we were playing outside.

Then we went inside and made dinner which included bacon and pancakes. The boys have to have their pancakes in the shape of Mickey.

On Saturday night we had what they called a Super Moon because Earth was the closest to the moon that we have been in like 18 years so it was bigger and brighter than normal. I tried to get a few good pictures...

Tree Cutting

Yesterday afternoon we had some visitors at the house. Nanny, Poppy, Dani, Haleigh, and Sam all came over. Sam had fun playing with Robin and the kids all had fun playing together. Rich came to help Ben cut down the tree in our front yard. We wanted to cut it down for many reasons and the HOA said we could do it.

There were a few times that I had to look away because I just didn't like what I saw. Ben and Rich both seemed to have fun with the whole thing and in the end nothing was damaged and nobody got hurt! Some of the craziest moments included the ladder sinking into the muddy ground causing it to sit at awkward angles until they decided to put a piece of wood under it and then bringing down the biggest branch which fall within inches of the neighbors motorcycle (they moved their cars, but the husband wasn't home to move the motorcycle).

I am glad to have it down now although all of the kids in the court were upset and repeatedly asking why we did it because they would all climb on it (one of the reasons we wanted it gone). We also need a new roof and the roof person told us we would have to get rid of at least the top half of the tree in order for them to get to the roof and do the work.

4-Wheeling with Poppy

On Friday I took the boys to story time at the library. As always, Zak loved it and had a good time. This time I was very surprised with how well Ryder did. Normally he wants to sit on my lap the whole time and not participate at all, but this time he sat next to Zak and danced and sang with all of the other kids. They did books all about the circus, had an animal parade, and got to try on some clown stuff.

Saturday morning Ben and the boys left the house at 6:45am to head to Green Ridge and go 4-wheeling with Rich (aka Poppy). They had a blast! The three of them didn't get home until around 8pm on Saturday night.

While the boys were away for the day I was busy at home getting stuff done. I got an oil change done for the car, went to the grocery store, got tons of laundry done and put away, cleaned up the house, finished going through clothes and a bunch of other random things. Then I went to dinner with Mandy and Mya which was so much fun. We used to hang out all the time in high school and it was so good to be able to hang out for an evening. They were still at the house when the boys got home which the boys thought was very neat. Zak continually said "mommy you have friends at my house"!

On Sunday morning we did Ryder's infusion which went pretty good. No major issues, but he did seem to have a lot of pain the whole day which is not always the case. After his infusion we went to drop off Laura's car to her since Ben had borrowed it to. Then we went to the store to look at paint colors for the boys' bedrooms. For the boys' birthday gift this year my mom is going to pay to have us paint their rooms. She knows that they have so much stuff and don't really need anything so she figured they would like having their rooms painted and getting to pick the color. I figured Ben would choose some colors and then let the boys pick from those, but instead he just told them to pick a color. We did say no to a few extremely dark colors that we really didn't like. So the colors they have chosen...

Zak chose Gamma Sector Green

(Disney colors by Behr)

Ryder picked Orange Blast

(Disney colors by Behr)

Stuff

On Thursday night I ended up taking Zak to an after-hours doctor because his pediatrician was all booked up and he just sounded worse than before. He was having horrible coughing fits and the sinus stuff didn't seem any better either. The doctor there checked him over and decided he still had a decent sinus infection going on along with croup. So he put Zak on oral steroids for 3 days and another round of Zithromax. He is no longer having the bad coughing fits, but he is still coughing a decent amount. Most of the sinus issues seem better other than a constant runny nose. I think I might give the pediatrician a call to see if this could be the start to allergy issues and if we should start giving the boys Zyrtec again. Ryder is doing great and just has a cough here and there and a slightly runny nose at times.

We went on a search for a new vacuum because ours was has not been working for a while now and the floors were getting really bad. After looking at a few stores I realized vacuums are ridiculously priced, way too heavy, and the perfect one just doesn't exist. So I let Zak pick out our new vacuum....he calls it "green super backroom"...for some reason when he says vacuum it sounds just like "backroom", kind of cute. The boys love this vacuum because it has different height adjustments for the handle and when it is all the way down on the lowest setting it is the perfect size for them!

On Sunday we made the drive to York, PA to visit with Ben's grandmother and Aunt who were in town visiting from NH. We met at their hotel and went swimming for a while. Zak got pretty used to the water fairly quickly and was off on his own and jumping in having fun with Jade. Ryder was not happy about being in the water which really surprised us because at the end of last summer he was also jumping in and swimming on his own. After many attempts of forcing him into the water he did finally relax a little bit. After we all got dry and changed we then went to lunch. In the early afternoon we made the drive home.

On Monday the boys went to their first sports class at the YMCA together. It is a class Zak did a few sessions ago, but we thought it would be great for Ryder also. They played soccer and did pretty good. Ryder didn't like hitting the ball with his head and he didn't really understand playing an actual game at the end. At one point during the game when they were all chasing the soccer ball Ryder got to it first, picked it up, and handed it to one of the other kids then ran off. All of the other parents thought it was cute and I just reminded Ryder that he can't use his hands in soccer. Maybe he would be a good goalie?! They both had fun though!

Now for pictures....

Both boys sitting waiting for their turns

Ryder in red, Zak in orange

Zak playing with the chalkboard at the after-hours place

Zak with his new vacuum

Ryder vacuuming

Zak swimming

Ryder was not happy

Zak had just jumped into the pool right in front of Ben

Ryder a little more relaxed

Zak, Ryder & Jade

Zak in his Buzz Lightyear towel

Ryder in his Woody towel

Today after lunch I spent about an hour with the boys trying on shorts from last year to see if anything still fit them and what we needed to buy for this year. Much to my surprise I only had to get rid of a few pairs and there were still some that were too big which they never wore last year. I have some little boys because all of the shorts that they tried on today that fit were 18-24 months! I am glad to know we are set for shorts this summer so I will really only need to look for tank tops at the Moms of Multiples Spring sale with is April 2.