Out of the Blue

Monday was Samantha's 2 month check-up. We went in, the doctor said she was growing wonderfully (12lbs - 23 1/2 inches). Then the doctor was doing her regular examination stuff, when she noticed that Sam's heart rate was racing a little bit. She had the assistants come in and do an EKG on Samantha. They put a bunch of little blue sticky things all over her chest and tummy, and then attached wires to them. When they started up the machine, I just wanted them to hurry up and get it over with so they could take those little sticky things off. Samantha looked so uncomfortable. They finished with the machine and then left Ben, Sam and I alone in the room. I remember thinking, "oh, this is normal, babies heart rate's race all the time." A few minutes later the doctor returned to tell us that this wasn't so normal. . .

Sam's doctor is a wonderful lady and she was very calm and reassuring when she told us that we were going to have to go straight to Doernbecher Children's Hospital and see the pediatric cardiologist. She told us that Samantha probably has something called SVT (Super Ventricular Tachycardia) which in short means - fast heart rate. Too fast.


We took her straight to OHSU, and got her checked in. We passed many hospital rooms before we arrived at ours and I notices a lot of sick children, and I felt my pulse quicken. I was thinking, a hospital is for sick kids, Samantha's not sick, she was just fine this morning, why are we here?

A few moments after we got into the hospital room and Samantha on the table, they hooked her up to more machines, that had me wishing for the little blue sticky things again. The things they put on her were big and looked extremely uncomfortable for an infant. One time I counted and noticed 9 doctors and nurses in the room. This of course is totally unnerving. Why on earth would there need to be so many people in here?! The next couple of hours were a blur. I remember looking at the monitor and seeing her heart rate as 280 (it's supposed to be around 100). One of the doctors put an ice pack over her entire face (to try to shock her heart into going back to a normal rhythm), he also tried pressing down on her chin/neck, for the same purpose and it just wasn't working.


The nurse put an IV in her, that then fell out and they had to do the process all over again. I was crying and Samantha was screaming her little heart out. Meanwhile, Ben was trying to keep us both calm. . . poor guy. Finally, the doc decided to give her a dose of medicine that goes straight to her little heart to slow it down, and it worked. . . finally!


After all of that, the cardiologist came and talked to us about what SVT is all about and what we will have to do about it. I guess the bottom line is that Samantha is okay, and God is in control. This has been the most difficult thing I have ever gone through, but it is all going to be okay. We are still in the hospital until at least tomorrow. I will write more later. If you could keep Sam, Ben and I in your thoughts and prayers over the next few days, we would greatly appreciate it.

Way too many wires

Mama trying to keep it together while Sam is crying. . . again!

Keeping her spirits up

And I was complaining about the little blue sticky things!

Tired baby and tired daddy