Heart beats

We live and breathe hearts, heart beats, color, dizziness etc around here. Sometimes it is overwhelming. It has been so much better the past several years, but in January Austin had some trouble. They could NOT find anything, so we moved on and chalked it up to him getting strep a few days later. Well last Wednesday Austin was sitting at his computer desk when he had two HUGE heart beats. He knew they were blocked beats, he's had them before, but these triggered a huge run of fast, VERY FAST, heart beats. He came and found Jay and I and was scared spit less. He was pale and he felt really dizzy. He said his chest felt like a 300 pound man was sitting on it and his left arm hurt.

Obviously, I panicked. We hooked him up to his defibrillator machine and sent a report in. I called the hospital and they said it didn't pick up anything. They said it only records if the beat goes above 190 beats per minute and if it goes over 16 beats. Great. We really needed some answers. The doctor felt like, by the symptoms, and the fact it took over an hour for his color to return and the tightness to go away, that it probably was in the 180's. He recommended we have his pacemaker reset to record at a lower speed so we would know what was going on.

Today, we saw the EP Doctor, who works with his "electrical" system, but also happens to be a plumbing doctor too, just not ours. They ran Austin through lots of different tests. They hooked him up to this machine that took control of his pacemaker. They forced it to pace his heart into a 90 beat per minute rhythm. You can see the machine in the pictures below.

 

 

You can also see how Austin is smiling, almost laughing, because when it took over his heart and made it beat fast, it felt like you do on a roller coaster. He said it felt crazy. They did it a second time and took it higher. Austin began to get red in the face and sweat like he had been running forever. They asked him if this was like what he felt last week. He said no, that the one last week was harder and faster! They reset his pacemaker to pick up events at 163 bpm. That way if he has another event, It will be recorded. They have also ordered a halter monitor for him to wear for a few days. I rotated this picture and it is fine until you import it!

 

 

His blood pressure was extremely low so they ordered him to drink Gatorade and eat 6 meals a day. Our regular doctor had transferred us to the doctor who sees people over 18 that have Childhood Heart Defects, but this doctor asked if she could just take over all his treatment, not just his electrical. We were so excited! We love her. We have worked with her so much and really love her and she has such a great love for Austin. (There is a team of about 18 doctors that all consult together, so our old one and the one we would have been transferred to, will still be consulted.)

We will know more next week, but they feel with the lower range on his Defibrillator/pacemaker that he will be fine in Jerusalem even if something happens again like last week.