One of those Days

Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Today was a rough day.  Over night Solomon had had some low heart rates where his heartrate fell to about 70 bpm.  Then this morning they tested his blood gas and decided that he was working too hard breathing with the mask.  They reintubated Solomon so that he is not having to use so much energy just to breathe.  It was nice to see his face again without that mask smooshing it down.  Solomon had some episodes of SVT (Supraventricular Tachycardia) which was when his heart rate increased to about 270 bpm.  The first two times it happened they were able to get it back down using Vagal Maneuvers (ie gagging him with their fingers).  The doctor thought that perhaps it was his UVC (Umbilical Vein Cathetar) that was causing his heart episodes so they decided to try to move it a little.  They moved it and Solomon's heart rate increased again.  They tried Vagal maneuvers again but his heart rate remained high.  At that point, they decided to completely remove the UVC to see if that would work.  It didn't.  The next thing to do was to administer a drug via IV to stop the SVT, only he still didn't have an IV.  At this point, some angel came into the room and was able to get an IV inserted in his leg.  They administered the drug and his heart rate normalized.  It was a very stressful 15 minutes for me to watch and I'm so grateful that Solomon has such talented people taking care of him.  The cardiologist came to see Solomon after I left and they have started him on beta blockers because he has a heart murmur.  Now with the breathing tube and the IV in place, he has stabilized and has had a pretty calm evening.  At some point during all this today, I realized that my ankles and calves were significantly swollen and called my doctor.  They had me come in to the office to evaluate.  Because I have a chronic blood clot in my leg, the CNP sent me to get an ultrasound on my legs.  Luckily the ultrasound showed that I had no active clots in my legs.  On top of all of this, I'm still managing to pump milk every 2.5 hours.  All in all, an exhausting day, I'm glad it's over.  I'm hoping that tomorrow is calm and I get to hold him all day.