Aaron the Younger Son is 4 today!
Mom did a great job with his Mickey Mouse party.
Aaron had a scary entry into the world. He was born with supraventricular tachycardia. The Cliffs Notes: In utero, your heart has an extra electrical connection that helps to regulate the beat, and it’s supposed to stop functioning before birth. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Aaron’s was still working intermittently, including right before he was born, which is how Lea came to have an emergency C-section. Aaron’s heart was beating 240 beats per minute. Imagine it in your head: 4 times per second. It was scary as hell to listen to.
So he spent a week in neonatal intensive care, during which he had a couple of more episodes, none lasting very long. Our pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Israel, showed us imaging of his heart during a normal rhythm, and pointed out the indications that it had been stressed (slight backflow on a valve was the biggest one). We went home with a logbook and stethoscope, because he needed monitoring.
He went into the fast rhythm a few times for a few minutes each, which we were told to expect. He scared us once when it stayed there for two hours. Went to the pediatrician, by which time it had subsided, and as he was otherwise fine, Dr. Israel told us to wait until he was in the fast rhythm for eight hours before seeking help. Okeydoke.
We settled into checking him morning, evening, and whenever he was fussy. We detected the tachycardia a time or two more, but it was never long-lived. Dr. Israel saw him again at a year, and told us his heart was healthy and normal in every way, and that he didn’t need to see him anymore. Shortly after that we stopped monitoring him daily, though we do still check it when he’s unhappy and the cause isn’t obvious. As far as we know, it’s never happened again.
It could still recur and cause him problems, even as an adult, but statistically it’s slightly more likely that it won’t. If it does, there is a fairly routine surgical procedure to correct it.
He’s such a happy, energetic, and inquisitive child today. It’s getting hard to remember how scary his initial appearance was.
His handle on the language is growing delightfully, as well. Both boys were and are quite verbal (imagine that), but Aaron’s come a long way with his constructions in the past month or two. When I was shaving this morning, Aaron was sitting on the tub petting Oliver (the cat), who was in the tub. He looked down at him with a big smile on his face, and said “Hello, my little gray brother!” Heh.
Happy Birthday, big guy. I love you.
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Auntie Chili sends BIG love your way (but not in front of EVERYONE, because that’s just icky, I know…).
I did not know that about your baby. I do know, however, how life-consuming ANY problem with your baby can be. I’m so glad it worked itself out in Aaron’s case; the world’s a better place for having him here.
Verbal, huh? Wonder how THAT happened…
“We went home with a logbook and stethoscope, because he needed monitoring.”
We, also, gave him Digoxin (sp?) for about a year. I’m not sure if it did anything or just made us feel like we were doing “something”.
Dr Israel was great. After Aaron first came home I had occasion to call one Saturday morning and interupted him mowing his grass (I thought doctors…especially the only pediatric cardiologist in town… got *people* to do that). He assured me the episode we’d just had with Aaron was over and tried to explain under what conditions I needed to worry enough to take him to the E.R. At one point he laughed at me and told me that “you computer / engineering type” hated to hear that we needed to base that decision mostly on our gut. He said we were always trying to get a more concrete answer out of him and that there wasn’t one.
I met one of Aaron’s Neo-natal nurses at church this week. She looked familiar to me and I remembered her from a medical setting. After talking for awhile, we decided that had to be where I knew her from. It was fun getting to point out Aaron, who is obvioiusly healthy and happy now.
Thanks, Mrs. Chili.
Yes, Dr. Israel was awesome in every way. And I had completely forgotten about the Digoxin.
I am so glad that Aaron is happy and healthy. I, too, understand how all consuming a problem with your child is.
And, Lea, I love the doctor’s observation about engineers. I think he has us pegged!
Happy birthday to Aaron.