Well, the past few days have been eventful. It was so nice to be home again. My body slowly adjusted to the heart medication so I could at least do some yoga and go for walks without feeling like I was running a marathon. Our appointment on Wednesday with Dr. Rajan (pediatric cardiologist) couldn't have gone better. Baby boy never had any SVT while we were doing his echo, and everything with his heart structure is completely normal. No signs of heart failure at all :) I had been having fairly steady nausea being on Dig, and since baby's heart was doing good, we decided to try and come down on my massive dose (twice a day instead of three times). We are going to be seen again this Friday to recheck baby and see how he tolerates the lower levels of medication.
Well, today marks kidney stone number whatever (I've lost count, I think it's #6). Truly a terrible morning. I still had pain medication from my last stone (like what, 2 weeks ago? it's ridiculous), so I called my new OB group and eventually talked to a nurse who said it would be ok to take with my digoxin. She didn't think it was an infection and neither did I, so she said to follow-up at tomorrow's appointment. I took my pain medication and about one hour later started having some chest pain, shortness of breath, and more nausea. I'd been having shortness of breath and nausea so I couldn't rely on those, but the chest pain was new. I decided just to lay down for a bit and see if that helped; within 10 minutes I felt complete relief. I didn't really know what to attribute it to, so I just let Matt know and told him we'd see how the day played out. Well an hour later it came back, but so tight and painful that I could barely breathe. I almost felt like I was being choked it was so hard to breathe. I laid back down and called the nurse back. She asked me some questions and then talked to Dr. Jackson, who said to come to St. Luke's immediately.
Matt got me, a puke bucket, my stuff, and his work computer in the car and ready to go in a flash. This time it wasn't really going away, which scared the daylights out of me. Not being able to breathe is scary stuff. Not that I couldn't get air in, but I felt like I couldn't get any oxygen. My breathing wasn't doing anything. My chest pain oscillated a little to give me brief periods where it wasn't so bad. By the time we got to St. Luke's, I was shaking and a little dizzy. We went straight to L&D again, and the nurse that had discharged us on Monday was taking care of us again. They took us to triage and laid me down. Of course they started getting the story from us while they checked me out. At this point I couldn't talk in full sentences. Once I had been laying down for a few minutes it started to subside again. I was feeling totally fine again by the time we got to my labs and EKG. Thankfully, all my labs and EKG were normal (other than my slow heart rate which is my new normal).
They thought another possible cause of the chest pain could be heartburn. So I was given a "GI cocktail" to see if that changed anything. No changes. I felt fine before I drank it though, so who knows. Since we were already there, they checked out my kidney stone too. They were pretty sure that it was just a kidney stone rather than an infection, but to be safe I was started on some antibiotics for 7 days while they wait for my urine culture to come back. I was also started on some Zantac, just in case it was heartburn and not chest pain. We got to go home with strict instructions to return if I have any more chest pain. Even if it was heartburn this time, there's no guarantee that it would be heartburn next time.
I would be delighted to have it be heartburn, but don't you just feel like an idiot? "Hey, I'm pretty sure my heart is seizing up here!" ..... "Nah, it could be heartburn." I'm aware that this can be a common occurrence where severe heartburn is mistaken for chest pain. But my goodness, severe chest pain/nausea/tightness/shortness of breath/dizziness/tingling hands..... it seems like it could've been chest pain to me. I'm not suggesting I've had a heart attack, but some good ol' fashioned angina (chest pain or discomfort that occurs when an area of your heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen-rich blood)..... absolutely. A heart attack only occurs when that lack of oxygen lasts long enough cause the heart muscle cells damage or death. We're back at home this evening on guard. I just feel like total crap: mild chest tightness, shortness of breath, nausea, kidney stone (pain, frequency, urgency, pain). I would add vomiting to the list but I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast, so my dry heaving is all I've got.
To try and stay a little on the positive side of all this nonsense, baby boy was monitored while we were at the hospital. No signs of SVT and a very normal rate and rhythm for him the whole time! Matt and I were both impressed. I don't want to speak too early and jinx myself, but it's almost like he's been cured. I do realize that I still have high levels of digoxin in my system, but this rhythm was better than it's ever been :) Please keep the prayers coming. Now that baby boy is good to go, let's see if we can get Mom good to go as well.
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