NCAA Tournament - Sweet 16

Last Thursday me and my brother Dustin decided to go to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. We chose to go on the day that there were 2 games, so we got to see UConn vs. Purdue and then Memphis vs. Missouri. UConn won game 1 and Missouri took game two. Me and Dustin had a great time and it was cool seeing the stadium for the first time. Below I have posted a few pics of the experience. On a side note, I am proud to announce that as of right now, I have 3 out of the Final 4 teams in my bracket: Villanova, Michigan State and UNC. Go Spartans!

Goodbye Monitor!

Yesterday we went into the Cardiologist for a follow up. The day before (Wednesday) I had gotten a call from their office telling me that I was throwing PVCs and was also registering sinus tachycardia. I was then told that they wanted to put me on Lopressor twice a day starting immediately and that I would need to wear my heart monitor the rest of the month to which I told them I wasn't taking anything until I talked to the Cardiologist. Good thing because when I looked up Lopressor to see what it was I found out it was a level C drug that is not deemed safe during pregnancy and doesn't seem like a drug to mess with (especially if you're drug-leery like
I am). The lady on the phone asked me,"Are you refusing to take this medication?" Uh, yeah.

Thank the Lord for pregnancy hormones that strike when you least expect it! This call and not knowing if something was seriously wrong sent me over the edge and Brian spent the rest of the night trying to pull me back to safety. Really, husbands (as long as they are wonderful like mine :) ) deserve serious props for loving their spouse during pregnancy when they go a little on the whacky side.

So, on Thursday, after a goodnights sleep, I was ready to take on the Cardiologists office. I put on my extra sassy pants, printed out all the information I had looked up on Lopressor, and was ready to rapid fire all my complaints at anyone who I thought was trying to put my precious Maisey in danger. Brian met me at the office and away we went. We met with the PA and right away I could tell that this visit was going to be ok.

He told us that in fact I am throwing PVCs and have sinus tachycardia but my echo came back that I have a healthy heart that can handle these things. He told us that Lopressor is an agressive route to take during pregnancy and he would recommend me sticking it out and seeing what happens. If I get to the point I can't take the frequency of the attacks anymore or it is causing me and Maisey to be in danger (from passing out, etc.) then we can look at drugs. He also said that it should go away after pregnancy because it is caused by my hormone change and increased blood flow. Unfortunately, he said that there is a high probability in our next pregnancy I will have them again. Truthfully, I don't care. As long as I know that I'm not in danger and Maisey's not in danger this heart thing doesn't bother me. My last question to the PA was if I could take off the heart monitor. He said yes! So, right there in the office I freed myself from the monitor I despised so much which Brian responded with a chuckle. He seems to find me and medical situations quite entertaining! :)

So, lesson learned, never just follow medical instructions blindly. Make sure you know why they are asking you to do what they are asking you to do and do your research so that you feel comfortable with ehatever decission you make. And, if you are not comfortable with what they ask, stand up for yourself and don't be afraid to say no!

Oh Maisey!!!

In usual form, Brian and I went back and forth deciding whether or not we wanted to have a 4D ultrasound. Brian really wanted to have one and I could have gone either way so, we went for it! On Thursday evening our families met up at Peek of You in Chandler to see if we would be able to get a good peek of Maisey and, although I was on the fence before, I was really excited to get a chance to see her precious face. I had spent that day talking with her about behaving in the ultrasound but I have come to realize already that she doesn't listen to what I tell her. This week I told her to stop kicking in my lungs and tried to shove her foot down a bit which she responded by shoving her foot even higher into my ribs. With that said, here is how our night went.

On our way to the place Brian and I stopped to get food because I knew there was absolutely no way that I would be able to make it until after the ultrasound. Our friend, Allison, has recommended drinking a shake before the ultrasound because the sugar and the cold usually help to wake the baby up but, Brian and I were running behind schedule and ran out of time to make a shake stop. First mistake. Although we were the last to arrive, I think the sugar would have been a help. I knew that we might have a problem because Maisey was wide awake and moving around at 4 p.m. but our ultrasound wasn't until 5:30 p.m. She NEVER stays awake for that long so I thought she might be in the middle of a early evening nap. Unfortunately, I was right. We all piled into the room which was very nice. They have several viewing screens so that everyone can see, comfy couches, and a really nice bed that I got to lay on.

The first thing the technician did was verify that Maisey is in fact a girl which my mom responds with I think I see her face....(that's my mom). Then she moved down to Maisey's face to which Maisey threw her hands over. When the ultrasound tech tried to jostle her around Maisey decided to flip the bird before rolling into my back leaving no hopes of getting a good peek of her features. Fortunately, Peek of You was wonderful and are allowing us to come back for a redo next week. We're going to all meet up again next Saturday and hope that Maisey decides to play well with the technician this time. I don't have a picture of Maisey flipping the bird (it's on the CD they are adding to next week but, I thought I would share the one decent picture they gave us from Thursday.

Looks like we are going to have our hands full! :)

The Good Ol' Days

I was reading this morning about President Barack Obama's decision to overturn President Bush's policy on embryonic stem cell research. Kind of makes me miss the good ol' days when we had a President who actually put value on human life.

A Kim Update.....

First off, thank you so much for all of your concern and prayers for Kim and Maisey. We appreciate all of the loving thoughts and support that have been sent our way. After our stint in the ER with Kim last weekend, we decided to listen to the doctors and go ahead and check with our obgyn to see if what Kim is experiencing is normal in pregnancy as well as get her recommendation on to where to go from here. All along, Kim has been waiting to hear "Oh, that's completely normal during pregnancy". Unfortunately all we have been able to get is "It may very well be normal, but because of the frequency of the occurrences we want to have it checked into further to make sure that there are no underlying issues." With that being said, our obgyn referred us to a cardiologist in Higley.

On Wednesday, Kim had her appointment with the cardiologist. Hoping to hear the words that everything is normal, she got the other response of her cardiologist wanting to look into it a little further. Since last Friday, the frequency of her heart palpitations have increased. Unfortunately her heart won't act up while she is on a monitor. Because of that, starting this Friday Kim will have to wear a heart pack monitor for up to 30 days. The way that the monitor works is that Kim will wear it, and whenever her heart acts up, she can press a button that will record the 30 seconds leading up to the arrhythmia as well as the occurrence itself. At the end of each day, she calls a phone number, holds the monitor up to the phone and it will transmit the data. That alone sounds way cool and blows my mind how that works. The cardiologist also wants Kim to get an echo cardiogram. That will take place next Friday.

The good news is that other than her potassium level bein on the low side, out of all of the tests that have been run so far, Kim's heart looks and sounds healthy and Maisey is still doing great. The doctors reiterate that they just want to make sure that there no pre-existing conditions or underlying issues that Kim has been aware of up to this point in her life. Here's to hoping that they will find some answers in the upcoming weeks. I will make sure to keep you all up to date as we find out more details.

"It feels like my heart skips a beat."

Last night was one that me and Kim will not soon forget. It isn't that it was action packed with drama as much as it was a waiting game and realizing how long the medical process is. It all started a few weeks back when Kim would randomly have the feeling that her heart was skipping a beat. It didn't happen often, so we didn't think much of it and I wasn't too concerned with it. Fast forward to Friday night. I had the privilege of being in Jeremy and Cherie Wagner’s wedding. It was a great ceremony and a fun reception. About half way through the reception, me and Kim had to go run out and get some stuff to decorate the Jeep. While we were on the drive she was telling me that her heart was skipping a beat more often. Then we are heading home and it starts acting up again. Now I'm getting a little concerned, but not to the extent that we needed to go to the ER or anything.
Saturday morning came and everything was fine. We went to breakfast and had a great morning together. Once she got to church for rehearsals and service, she told me that her heart has done the skipping thing probably between 10 - 15 times.....in a 5 hour period. She's not concerned, but now I’m thinking "this isn't normal." She decided to talk to some of the vocalists that are on this weekend and they said the they experienced the same thing, or that their wives had experienced the same thing when they were pregnant and that it isn't anything to worry about.....10 - 15 times in 5 hours isn't something to worry about??? I'll admit that I was concerned and with the help of our friends Papia and Sheri, I thought that we should at least call our obgyn to see what their recommendation was. We spoke to the nurse practitioner and she said that one or two here and there isn't anything to be concerned about, but since it is happening so often, that we should go to the Labor and Delivery at the hospital to have it checked out. Kim kept adamantly telling me that she is fine and that it is normal, but I finally got her to agree that she would go.
Our obgyn had hopes that they would be able to do any testing that they needed to from Labor and Delivery. As our nurse walked in she began to let her know that she feels fine and doesn't need to be in the hospital. The nurse told her that it is always good to get it checked out. The hooked her up to check her vitals and make sure that little Maisey is doing well. We were probably in the Labor and Delivery for about an hour and a half before we were told that since the heart is a mother’s health and not a baby’s health issue, we would have to go down to the E.R. This made Kim even more anxious because of all the sickness in the E.R. and her frustration of being there in the first place began to fester because as she told the Nurse in the Labor and Delivery and now the lady checking us into the E.R., she really is fine and doesn't have to be there. They were quick at getting us checked in and into a room. On a side note, if you need to go to the E.R., I strongly recommend the Banner Gateway E.R. Each stall is an individual room with sliding glass doors so that you don't have to listen to the person next to you hack up a lung and each stall has a flat screen TV, which is even better, because our night would soon become very long. We waited in our initial room until the doctor told us that we were going to be there a while and wanted to transfer us into Paul’s section.
Kim wanted to make sure that our doctor knew that she really felt fine and didn't need to be there and she was sure to tell Paul the same thing. Paul told her that this is where she needed to be and that it was good that she came in. Paul brought a smile to my face, he had a personality that reminded me of a friend of mine named J.J. Peterson. If you know him, you'll understand. This guy had a great sense of humor which definitely helped through the night. Our doctor finally came in and told us what test he wanted to do. He wanted to do and EKG as well as a blood work up and monitor the heart. They came in at about 10:30 for the bloods, that should only take about an hour to get the results back we were told. In the mean time they did the EKG and gave it to the Doc to look at while he was monitoring her heart. Finally at about 12:30 Paul came back in and told us that the EKG came back normal, the blood test for the heart enzymes came back normal and her heart hadn't acted up while we were in there, so he was going to get the doc and see if we could be released. At about 12:45, the doc came in and told us the same thing; he also wants Kim to wear a hip pack (or something like that) so that they could try to catch the heart acting up. We finally got released and started the car at the stroke of 1:00 a.m. Exhausting to say the least.
So today we are tired and hungry and looking forward to the afternoon nap. It's a great thing that we didn't have to be in Gilbert this morning, call time is 6:00 a.m. Good news is that everything has come back fine and I am thankful that Kim appeased me by going in and getting it checked out. Oh yeah, Kim's last words to me before we went to bed...."I told you that nothing was wrong!" That's why I love that girl :)