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.

Pregnancy Anemia

So I recently had my blood drawn at my 28 week appointment. I discovered 2 things. One, I failed my one hour glucose test, which means I have to go in tomorrow for the 3 hour test. I was gestational diabetic with my first daughter, and I'm expecting the same diagnosis later this week. I also discovered that I was anemic so I need to start taking iron supplements. One of the symptoms of anemia in addition to fatigue, shortness of breath, and headaches is...heart palpitations. Bingo. Maybe that's why I've been feeling so many of those nasty misbeats lately. And hopefully, now that I'm taking the iron pills, I'll see a reduction in the number of palpitations I get (especially before bedtime.)

Fingers crossed.

And the Beat Goes On

I'm so sorry to all my readers. I have been an absolute horrible blogger recently. I got pregnant and that caused a whole myriad of things to prevent me from blogging regularly (nausea, fatigue, keeping up with a toddler, appointments, etc).

But I'm doing well, and I'm nearing the end of my second trimester. We found out that we are having another little girl (yay for sisters!) and she's due to arrive in mid November.

How are my heart palpitations these days, you may ask? Oh, they are a pretty active right now! Some women say that pregnancy makes them better and others say that they make them worse. In fact, many women first experience the sensation of palpitations when they become pregnant. This causes many anxious and frightened mama-to-be's to report this symptom to their doctors. Usually, the doctor reassures the mama that these are normal and for many lucky women, they go away after pregnancy.

Mine come almost every day. Some really scare the beejeezus out of me. But for the most part, I've come to accept their annoyances. They are especially bad as I lay down before I go to sleep. I've noticed that if I lay on my right side, they seem to diminish somewhat. And if they are really annoying, I'll sometimes prop myself up with several pillows and sleep upright. They are not too bad when I'm active, but no surprise there. Most of us PVCers are more aware of them when we are sedentary. That doesn't mean they don't occur when I'm up and about; I just don't feel them.

I'm most nervous about the heart palpitations during the post-partum period. Lack of sleep and caring for a new baby and a toddler is a recipe for stress-induced palpitations. I've mentioned before on my blog that my cousin Beth past away within the year of giving birth to her 4th child. There has been much discussion over the cause of her death, but most of her doctors think that she may have had Long QT syndrome, a condition that causes palpitations, fainting, and sudden death. Findings indicate that among women with LQTS who gave birth, the 9-month postpartum time is associated with a 2.7-fold increased risk of experiencing a cardiac event and a 4.1-fold increased risk of experiencing a life-threatening event when compared with the preconception time period. After this transient high-risk postpartum period, the risk of cardiac events reverts to the baseline pre-pregnancy risk. What does this all mean for me? I've been tested over and over and my doctors feel fairly certain that I do not have this genetic condition. So, I shouldn't worry about an increase risk of sudden-death during the post partum period. But when you have a family member die after giving birth, it does make you a bit anxious.

Sleepwalking Through Spring

I'm so sorry I haven't been posting as much. I literally have been a sleepwalking zombie the past couple months. Why, you ask? I found out in early March that my husband and I will be expecting our 2nd child in November. I'm about 9 weeks in and feeling every bit of it. Extreme fatigue, nausea, depression, lack of motivation, anxiety, mood swings, vomiting, heart palpitations galore, headaches...you name it, I probably got it. Since I'd rather not portray my weary self to the world, I've sort of been shutting myself away. I do hope to post more in the future. And all the prayers and well wishes would be greatly appreciated.

Pregnancy and PVCs

Many women have their first episodes of heart palpitations during pregnancy. This is understandable in that the state of pregnancy causes significant shifts in blood volume (which peaks at 28-32 weeks) and also puts a new stress on the heart that may bring out a tendency for rapid heart action that was not manifest prior to pregnancy. The stroke volume of the heart increases and under the influence of progesterone, the heart can beat irregularly occasionally. After the pregnancy, the patient may not experience palpitations or may begin to see palpitations occur under other stressful circumstances. There certainly doesn't need to be anything wrong with the heart in order for palpitations to occur during pregnancy. But of course, if the palpitations are accompanied with dizziness or shortness of breath, or if the mother has had some history of cardiac problems, she should be seen right away.

My experience? I was sooo nervous about getting pregnant because I feared what it might do to my heart. I got myself so worked up with anxiety that the first trimester was a real nightmare. In fact, I experienced quite a few scary episodes at night while I was asleep. I went and saw my electrophysiologist and I wore a holter monitor for the rest of my first trimester. So if you do experience palpitations during your pregnancy, be sure to mention it to your doctor because they might also want you to wear a holter monitor. I think wearing it gave me reassurance and peace of mind because I don't think I ever experienced nighttime arrhythmia the rest of my pregnancy. As my pregnancy progressed I do remember experiencing the occasional flip-flop but no more or less than my non-pregnant state. And through contractions, drugs, epidural, and pushing (for 3 hours!), my ticker was fine. I was a little nervous about postpartum because I was physically and emotionally exhausted, but at that time, my heart was just doing a happy dance. I was so proud of myself for giving birth to the most beautiful little girl. And the things that I feared (not getting enough sleep, dealing with a newborn, etc.) weren't even an issue when given the privilege of taking care of one of God's children.