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  • Pediatric cardiologist

    Pediatric cardiologist

    Dr Hesslein was able to diagnose Dahlia’s issues pretty easily by looking at the EKG they did while she was at the ER earlier in the week. He called her condition “SVT”. In SVT, supraventricular tachycardia, the heart rate is sped up by an abnormal electrical impulse starting in the atria. The heart beats so fast that the heart muscle cannot relax between beats. When the chambers don’t relax, they cannot contract strongly or fill with enough blood to meet the body’s needs. Because the heart can’t contract the way it should, the brain may not receive enough blood and oxygen. It can make her feel light in the head, dizzy, or feel like her heart is racing or pounding. He says it will happen again but there is no knowing when. When she has an episode we can do physical maneuvers to help stop the rapid rate like holding her breath and bearing down, gagging her, or dunking her head in ice cold water. We can try to stop it by ourselves for up to 2 hours before heading to an ER for medicine. If the episodes become more frequent or more bothersome we can put Dahlia on medication or schedule radiofrequency ablation, a surgical procedure that uses catheters to destroy the tissue that causes the rapid heartbeat. 

  • New fashion accessory

    New fashion accessory

    As soon as I came home with the Breathe Right strips Monti found the
    idea very appealing. She wanted to wear the strips to school but I
    told her they for bedtime. That night she opened them up and put one
    on. She took it off in the morning and snuck it back on right before
    we went to the bus stop. She came home from school still wearing the
    Breathe Right strip. Hopefully it at least helps her breathe through
    her nose.

  • At the ER

    At the ER

    These are pictures of calmer moments at the emergency room. Getting an
    IV into Dahlia’s arm was a harrowing experience. After about 3 pokes
    in the midsection of her left arm they were unable to find a vein.
    Dahlia was crying and very upset. They suggested trying the other arm
    and Dahlia lost it completely. She started screaming, kicking, yelling
    “I want to go home. I feel fine.” It was so hard to watch. They were
    very good with her. They gave her a moment to settle down on her own
    but they could see that she was not going to be reasoned with. They
    had to wrap her in a sheet like a papoose before sticking her again
    closer to her wrist. After a blood-curdling scream the IV was finally
    in place. They didn’t like putting the IV in so far down the arm. They
    needed to get the medicine to her heart quickly for it to work
    correctly. On the way home she apologized for kicking me. She told me
    she was just really nervous and I told her “I know Dahlia, I was
    nervous too.”

  • Dahlia at the hospital

    Dahlia at the hospital

    When we left the park Dahlia was complaining that her heart was
    beating fast. Once home she was sitting at the computer and she told
    me she felt sick and her heart hurt. I put my head to her chest and
    her heart was going nonstop. I took her upstairs to Joe and he
    immediately called the nurses phone line. They said, “Call 911. We don’t want
    to waste time by talking to you.” Joe took Dahlia to the ER while I
    took Monti to her friend’s house. At the hospital her heart rate was
    between 250 & 260. They tried to slow it down by manipulating the
    arteries on her neck with hard massage but it didn’t work. They ended
    up having to put an IV in her so they could get some medicine directly
    to her heart. They called the condition PSVT and the drug they used
    was called adenosine. It worked great and brought her heart rate to
    about 130. They did some blood test and a chest x-ray which all came
    back normal. We will have to follow-up with a cardiologist. 

  • at the new park

    at the new park

    The girls try out the new equipment in the park. We counted the steps
    to the park from our house. It is 328 steps. The kids were
    disappointed that there were only baby swings but they found a
    workaround.

  • Lots of laughs

    Lots of laughs

    We had another night out with the moms. As always it was full of lots
    of good conversation and laughs.

  • Immortal balloons

    Immortal balloons

    Yes I’m writing about balloons. The girls were given these balloons 2 weeks before Halloween from Trader Joe’s. As with many things I get from Trader Joe’s, I was truly impressed. I am not sure what type of helium or latex they used for these balloons but they are simply amazing. They have stayed afloat for about 4 weeks now.

  • Where’s Annie?

    Where’s Annie?

    Will this hamster make it in for a year in our house? The girls love to play with her and they put her in all kinds of containers, tin boxes and doll cars. She sometimes just falls asleep in the little space they give her. Once Monti came downstairs and told me she saved Annie’s life. The hamster had jumped or fallen from Dahlia’s cupped hands into the toilet. Monti sounded genuinely impressed when she said “Annie was a pretty good swimmer.” I am trying to control the time they spend with her more because I know they would be devastated if something awful was to happen to Annie on their watch.

  • Day off school

    Day off school

    We headed down to the Pacific Science Center on one of the days off this past week. We saw a great live show on combustion and an IMAX film about the first completed expedition from source to sea on the Nile. The highlight for the kids, however, was getting ice cream afterwards of course.

  • Monti’s getting a cavity filled

    Monti’s getting a cavity filled

    On Monti’s brand new molar they found a small cavity. The dentist told
    me her molars are really “groovy” and not in a cool way. She told me
    there was a good chance that the cavity could have formed before it
    erupted fully from the gum. Not sure if this was true but I sense she
    was trying to ease my guilt. After they filled the tooth without
    novocaine the dentist added a sealant on the molar.