Friday, January 6, 2012

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Delivery Room

My beautiful and healthy (praise God) daughter was born November 17, 2011. We are all doing extremely well. A bit sleep deprived, but adjusting well to a family of four. My older daughter is in love with her new baby sister and has been a great helper. Labor was a bit more difficult than with my first as I labored a lot longer without an epidural. After experiencing intense contractions 3-5 minutes apart for over 8 hours, it was time the anesthesiologist came in. As he started prepping me, he started asking me the standard questions, such as have I ever had heart disease, etc. Seldom do doctors ask about heart arrhythmia per say so I went ahead and started filling him in. While groaning through contractions, I spoke of PVCs, and of bigeminy, of my cousin and possible Long QT in our family. I mumbled stuff about tachycardia and fibrillation. That's when the anesthesiologist looked up from his paper he was taking notes on and asked "Are you a nurse?" I asked why he thought I was one and he told me that the terms I was throwing out made it seem like I had a medical background. Ha! Nope, I've just experienced these little buggers for so long, and I have wanted to educated myself about my heart. I actually took it as a great compliment. You always hear that you have to be your biggest health advocate and the fact that I was able to convey my medical history (even in great pain) made me proud. The epidural took and less than 2 hours later and a few pushes, my daughter was out. Recovery has been relatively easy, and post partum I haven't experienced too many premature ventricular contractions - medical jargon for "the dance". I bet the anesthesiologist would have even gotten a greater kick out of it if he had known I blog about the subject.

2 comments:

Mrs. Aranda said...

Congratulations! =) Glad everything went well (even if the labor was a little longer). I know you're enjoying every second with your sweet girls!

Addy

Anonymous said...

Just came across your blog. I am about to give birth in the next 4-5 weeks. I am experiencing more frequent PVC's/PAC's now than I have in a long time.
Had all the test done, holter for 30 days, EKG''s galore and stress ECHO. All show normal heart activity and normal size and structure of heart. Still when they happen I can't get them out of my head.
Glad to hear your labor went well. I have been worrying about mine and if the PVC's will bother me.
I just keep praying.