Heart Matters

If you've followed the blog from when I was pregnant with Hannah this won't be anything new but if you're new to the blog then here goes.  When I'm pregnant, and only when I'm pregnant thankfully, I have a heart condition.  It's weird.  Even my cardiologist says it's not normal to only have a heart condition when pregnant and not other times.  Anywhoo....my heart condition is call Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT).  Basically my heart beats so fast that the heart muscle can't relax between contractions.  When the chambers don't relax they can't fill with enough blood for my body and the brain doesn't received enough blood and oxygen causing me to get light headed, out of breath and have a very fast heart rate.  The reason this only happens to me when I'm pregnant is because the increased blood flow for the baby.  When I'm not pregnant, no extra blood flow therefore my heart beats normally.  

I went to the cardiologist a few months ago because I was already noticing symptoms that I had while pregnant with Hannah and after getting the EKG, Echo cardiogram and wearing the 24 hour Holter monitor again it was determined that the SVT was indeed back and we're going to follow the same protocol as we did last time.   I do wish I had more options as far as treatments because the medicine they would normally treat me with isn't safe for when pregnant so they have me on the same medicine as last time which is very sensitive and toxic to your blood if you aren't on the right dose so I get my blood taken frequently.  We still haven't found the right dose for me that is safe while making me feel better but they're working on it.  I remember with Hannah that I was on the strongest dose allowed by the end of my pregnancy so I'm assuming the same will happen this time around.  I was expecting this so nothing really surprised me except how quickly it started this time.  I thought it would start later like it did with Hannah (I think I was around 19-20 weeks with her when I noticed it) but it got much much worse with her before I was medicated so maybe that's why I'm noticing it earlier with the little guy.  

Anyways, I take it day by day and try to do as much as I can without over doing it which isn't much.  I'm just happy this is a short term thing (it went away within hours of delivering Hannah so we're hoping the same happens with the little guy) so after he's born I can get back to feeling normal again.  Poor Austin has to do EVERYTHING!  I just lay there and watch him clean, pick up Hannah (that's been a no-no since 14 weeks for me unfortunately.  It makes me sad.), push the grocery cart, etc.  Luckily he's awesome like that and doesn't complain because well, it's not my fault and he knows I don't like not being able to do things for myself or help him.  It's really hard to not do little things like go to the grocery store but I can quickly tell when I've done too much and get out of breath or start having Braxton Hicks contractions so I've accepted it and just try to relax as much as possible.  I'm not very good at it still though....

One thing that is hard is seeing other pregnant women who are further along than me doing things I can't do anymore.  Here I am at 22 weeks and I can't do the same things women at 38 weeks are doing easily.  But it is what it is.  I can't change it so I just accept it and do the best I can do while staying safe.  My #1 priority is being healthy and keep this precious boy in my belly for as long as possible so he can get big and strong (I'm pretty sure he's strong already based on his ninja kicks in there).  Hannah is just the sweetest little girl ever too and will come up to me and say "Mommy are you tired, do you need to rest?".  I just love her so much.  I feel guilty a lot because I can't go on walks with them or play much so I try to rest on the couch in her play room with her a lot and get cuddle time in or just play while sitting.  We have a lot of tea parties.  :) 

So, that's about it.  Let's pray for an uneventful pregnancy with little complications and that my heart stays under control!