This last week was quite the eventful week.
Sunday, we had our first party at our new house for Traci's birthday. We actually had pretty good turnout. I wasn't expecting so many people to make the drive up here, but they did and we were glad, especially Traci. Little did I know that the next day would be much different.
Yesterday (Saturday), we went down the hill for another party. This one was for Courtney's birthday. She had some of her friends from her old school there and the girls' teachers even showed up, which the girls were very excited about. It was another fun party and she loves all the gifts she received. She has been using or playing with as many as she can today.
While the parties were plenty of fun, Monday and Tuesday were a bit on the scary side, personally, as I was admitted to the hospital for the first time since just before my 4th birthday, 32 years ago. I have had this same thing happen before, but it was not as bad as this one and has never lasted this long (7 hours).
I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation, or A-Fib. I would explain it, but it's much easier to include a link. It felt exactly the same as it did back near the end of high school and early college. All of a sudden without warning, my heart starts beating very hard and very fast. I can feel it within my chest with some discomfort, feeling like someone is pushing lightly on my chest. Also, I got very light-headed feeling like I was going to fall while in the shower. Fortunately, Traci was nearby, so I went and laid down on the bed to rest and see if that would help my heart come down. It didn't. The feelings were all the same except that I was laying down and didn't feel light-headed. I told Traci I thought we may need to call 911.
About 15-20 minutes later, the chest discomfort went away, but the fast-beating of the heart continued. At that point, I didn't think 911 was needed, but since I still didn't feel right and knew my heart was still beating like crazy, we decided I needed to be checked out. We went to Urgent Care to see if they thought this was something they could handle, but they told us to go to the ER, and so we did.
Upon arrival, Traci checked me in while they told me to go straight back once she told them what my problem was. So back I went. Once I had my hospital robe (pus jeans) on, they did an EKG, which immediately showed them something was wrong. My heart was beating very fast and was irregular. The heartbeat would generally range from about 120 to 170 beat per minute! The highest it got was 181. (That's 3 beats per second.)
They tried three times with medication to slow my heart, but none of them worked. Four hours after the last medication, and after about 7 hours of the rapid heartbeat and on and off light-headedness, my heart went back to its normal rhythm on its own. This is the joy of Atrial Fibrillation. Since mine only occasionally happens (the last big episode being about 17 years ago), they did not give me any medication for it, but did put me on low-dose aspirin as a blood thinner. The reason for this is because blood can pool in the atrials of the heart as a result of this condition, it can clot, and if it clots, then leaves the heart and winds up in the brain, a stroke is very possible. That is pretty scary. Fortunately the only change I need to make in my diet is to avoid caffeine. So far, I haven't had caffeine since last Sunday at Traci's party (not counting some chocolate).
After I had an IV inserted into my arm, had three blood draws (two not from the IV) and three shots (two in the stomach which were the most painful out of everything), and I had been diagnosed with A-fib, they released me on Tuesday, which was Valentine's Day. Fortunately I was only in the hospital for one night although it felt longer. So now I continue on in life knowing I have a heart condition and wondering if that means I can no longer do roller coasters, which I love. So after being released Tuesday afternoon, it was very nice to get back home and to be able to salvage Valentine's Day. We did celebrate that night by going to John's Incredible Pizza.
Wednesday it was back to work, which was good. There were a number of contracts I was supposed to get approval on early in the week which did not happen because I wasn't there. I was glad to get back to work on those as being at work was more relaxing then being it the hospital. I was able to get most of those contract approvals released in those three days I was at work.
However, Wednesday turned out to be a very interesting day, in a much better way, for the Steinman family. We experienced our first snow at our new home. It was also the first time the girls have ever seen it snow. The snow was sticking just enough for them to make small snowballs and throw them at each other. Needless to say, they were very excited. It started snowing bad enough to where they closed our office and let us go home. I still did a little bit of work at home, but it was nice to be able to do that from home.
So while it was a very eventful week, I'm hoping this week is much less eventful. I know it should start off fun as Courtney's birthday is tomorrow and we'll all be home. Here's to a hopefully normal week!
