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Heart of the Matter...Part 3
This is a picture of one very unhappy little boy. This is how he spent 4th of July morning, in the emergency room of the Alex Bay hospital. It all started when he came in from the shed at camp, where he was getting water, and he grabbed my hand and put it to his chest. We then tried all the tricks that the cardiologist told us to do should Brad have another "episode". We tried putting a cold washcloth on his face and tried barring down. Nothing worked and Brad was in a lot of pain. It was then that I said we were going to the hospital. Seeing as we are about 2 hours from University Hospital in Syracuse, we did the next best thing we could think of and went to the hospital in Alex Bay. On the trip to the hospital, Brad got sick in the car. This triggered something in me to say that whatever was going on was not right. This was the first time that he had gotten sick with one of these heart episodes. When we arrived at the hospital, I told admissions exactly what the cardiologist told us to say if this were to ever come up...My six year old is having a rapid heartbeat and palpitations and he has WPW and Ebstein's Anomaly. They barely took his name and had him into a bed and hooked up on a heart monitor! Within minutes, he was having a EKG done and they were calling his cardiologist. Then the nurse came in with vials to draw blood and Brad flipped out. He was crying and said that he didn't want any needles. Seeing him cry made me start to cry. Then I realized that I needed to pull it together for him and stopped my crying. Little did he realize was they were actually putting his IV in! He put up a good fight, but in the end, lost. Then came the blood draw. More tears and more Mommy hugs and kisses. This is where the physician assistant and doctor came in and put a large bag of ice on his face. This did not bring his heart rate down, it only pissed Brad off more! At this point, Brad's heart beat was 266. A normal heart rate for a child is 90 to 110. After another call to the cardiologist, they had Brad try to do a hand stand. Apparently this works for teenagers and the pressure from the hand stand sometimes reduces the heart rate. This did absolutly nothing! So another call was made and faxes of Brad's EKG were sent and it was onto plan B. It was then decided that Brad was having Supraventricular Tachycardia. Brad's cardiologist prescribed Adenosine to be put into his IV. The ER doctor explained to me that this will drop Brad's heart rate rapidly and may be scary to watch the monitors when they give this to him. So Brad was given the drug into his IV and sure enough, his heart rate dropped from 266 to 97 in less than a second. Brad complained that his heart hurt but then it was fine. He immediately got his color back into his face and began smiling and talking to the nurses and doctor like nothing had happened.
Here is Brad after the medicine to "jump start" his heart! He looks like a completely different kid! He was monitored for about another hour and was then discharged. Brad was also given a prescription for a beta blocker. He did have to take one of these pills in the hospital. This was the first time that he ever took a pill. The nurse talked him through it and he took it like a champ. As we were walking out, the lady at admissions could not believe that we were leaving so soon. She also commented to me that I was super calm. She asked if we had been through this before, and I told her this was the first time since his diagnosis that we had to come to the hospital for such an event. She could not believe it. I told her that someone needed to keep a calm head in this situation, if for nothing else, but for Brad. For the record, the ER at Alex Bay was awesome. I can not say enough good things about them. They handled our situation calmly and with such professionalism. Through everything in the ER, I kept telling Brad that he was a rock star. I couldn't have been more proud of him for being so brave during this entire situation. I don't think that I would have been at his age. Now, we have a follow up appointment with his cardiologist in two weeks to find out where do we go from here.
This is a picture of one very unhappy little boy. This is how he spent 4th of July morning, in the emergency room of the Alex Bay hospital. It all started when he came in from the shed at camp, where he was getting water, and he grabbed my hand and put it to his chest. We then tried all the tricks that the cardiologist told us to do should Brad have another "episode". We tried putting a cold washcloth on his face and tried barring down. Nothing worked and Brad was in a lot of pain. It was then that I said we were going to the hospital. Seeing as we are about 2 hours from University Hospital in Syracuse, we did the next best thing we could think of and went to the hospital in Alex Bay. On the trip to the hospital, Brad got sick in the car. This triggered something in me to say that whatever was going on was not right. This was the first time that he had gotten sick with one of these heart episodes. When we arrived at the hospital, I told admissions exactly what the cardiologist told us to say if this were to ever come up...My six year old is having a rapid heartbeat and palpitations and he has WPW and Ebstein's Anomaly. They barely took his name and had him into a bed and hooked up on a heart monitor! Within minutes, he was having a EKG done and they were calling his cardiologist. Then the nurse came in with vials to draw blood and Brad flipped out. He was crying and said that he didn't want any needles. Seeing him cry made me start to cry. Then I realized that I needed to pull it together for him and stopped my crying. Little did he realize was they were actually putting his IV in! He put up a good fight, but in the end, lost. Then came the blood draw. More tears and more Mommy hugs and kisses. This is where the physician assistant and doctor came in and put a large bag of ice on his face. This did not bring his heart rate down, it only pissed Brad off more! At this point, Brad's heart beat was 266. A normal heart rate for a child is 90 to 110. After another call to the cardiologist, they had Brad try to do a hand stand. Apparently this works for teenagers and the pressure from the hand stand sometimes reduces the heart rate. This did absolutly nothing! So another call was made and faxes of Brad's EKG were sent and it was onto plan B. It was then decided that Brad was having Supraventricular Tachycardia. Brad's cardiologist prescribed Adenosine to be put into his IV. The ER doctor explained to me that this will drop Brad's heart rate rapidly and may be scary to watch the monitors when they give this to him. So Brad was given the drug into his IV and sure enough, his heart rate dropped from 266 to 97 in less than a second. Brad complained that his heart hurt but then it was fine. He immediately got his color back into his face and began smiling and talking to the nurses and doctor like nothing had happened.
Here is Brad after the medicine to "jump start" his heart! He looks like a completely different kid! He was monitored for about another hour and was then discharged. Brad was also given a prescription for a beta blocker. He did have to take one of these pills in the hospital. This was the first time that he ever took a pill. The nurse talked him through it and he took it like a champ. As we were walking out, the lady at admissions could not believe that we were leaving so soon. She also commented to me that I was super calm. She asked if we had been through this before, and I told her this was the first time since his diagnosis that we had to come to the hospital for such an event. She could not believe it. I told her that someone needed to keep a calm head in this situation, if for nothing else, but for Brad. For the record, the ER at Alex Bay was awesome. I can not say enough good things about them. They handled our situation calmly and with such professionalism. Through everything in the ER, I kept telling Brad that he was a rock star. I couldn't have been more proud of him for being so brave during this entire situation. I don't think that I would have been at his age. Now, we have a follow up appointment with his cardiologist in two weeks to find out where do we go from here.
Oh my goodness... (((HUGS))) Brad is a brave little boy and you're a wonderful mom!!!! <3
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