Why I Won't Remember my 27th Birthday Fondly

Pictures before the post After things Stopped being really scary

Her head IV - she had 3 of these as they kept on having to move spots. They creeped us out


The aftermath of the above IV - her bald spot. Luckily the nurse who did the other two didn't shave her head or she would have a bald spot on top of her head



Her big bed on the floors

After her last SVT getting some oxygen

You try thinking of a good title for a post about your infant daughter being in the hospital for 11 days.

On Tuesday the 10th I had put Ashlyn down and went and got dressed, and heard Ashlyn screaming. When I came in to get her I noticed that her lips were blueish (only her lips), this had happened before and when we pick her up it goes away as soon as she stops crying - within seconds of being picked up. We were planning to mention it to her doctor whom we had an appointment with later that week. This time when I picked her up she didn't calm and then I noticed that she was struggling to breath and then stopped breathing. I called 911 and Jarrett. She did start to breath shallowly while I was holding her, while at the same time I was trying to call everyone I could think of, that lived close, to come watch my kids. The ambulance came and assessed her (she was breathing at this point) and since I had no one to watch my kids yet, the ambulance left without me and took Ashlyn in. As soon as they left I was able to get a hold of my mom who came right over. While I was waiting for my mom, Jarrett came home. So Jarrett and I headed to the University hospital. When we got there we were met by a lot of Doctors and nurses surrounding our baby and nobody knew why she was sick. This was probably the scariest part, they intubated her as well as drilled into her bone to administer antibiotics. Their best guess at this point was she had some type of infection. During this time we called my mom to tell her about the situation and to figure out what to do with the boys. My friend Kyla had called while we were waiting for my mom to get to our house earlier and had offered her help if needed, so my mom took them to her house and they stayed the night. In the emergency they did a wack load of tests and tried to figure out where to admit her - the Neonatal or Pediatric ICU. We ended up going to the NICU.

When they took us up to the NICU they started doing a bunch of tests on her heart and it was discovered that it was low functioning. We refered to the cardiologist that told us this as the scary cardiologist, not because she was scary but because she had the scariest news. This was also one of the scariest parts because they decided to put in femoral lines, one of which went into an artery, so curtains were put up and we couldn't see her anymore. Since Ashlyn was so sick they provided us with a small room to stay in at the NICU. It was at this point that we both went in the room and cried. My parents then came and Ashlyn was given a blessing. Then it became a wait and see game as there was a sick baby and no definite answers. Jarrett and I went to eat something and take a little walk to clear our heads. When we got back we saw Ashlyn was surrounded by Doctors again (they had tried to get a hold of us but we had forgotten our cell phone). Ashlyn's heart rate had gone up to the 290s in something called Super Ventricular Tachycardia (SVT). They were trying to use medication to bring it down and keep it down. This took them awhile to achieve. By this point Ashlyn was on 2 IV poles worth of medication, I think 12 things in total. This was the point where things turned around and she started to respond really well to everything. This was when they told us that the diagnosis was SVT and told us a bit about it.

So Ashlyn turned around really quickly at this point and was taken off most of the medications except the one that she would continue to take when she went home. This quick turn around is actually a sign of the correct diagnosis. Ashlyn's case is a little different, as most infants who have SVT will come into the hospital while in SVT, but she didn't. It is suspected that she had it her whole life but would just go in and out of it.

Now we started the process of getting Ashlyn on the right medication and dosage. We started with one type but she had 4 SVT's even after upping her dosage (one even happened an hour before we were suppose to go home and an other on my Birthday). We ended up switching to a different medication that seems to be working well for her. We spent from the 10th to the 17th in the NICU and on the 17th we moved to the Pediatric Cardiac Area on the floors and went home on the 20th. She will now take medication and be followed by a pediatric cardialogist.

Thoughts from this process

- I could never be a nurse I get too emotionally involved in other people. It is surprising in the NICU how I was affected by the ups and downs of other people's babies. I think it is just because everyone wants all those babies to get better.

- NICU nurses are wonderful. These are the nurses we really got to know, I always knew I was leaving Ashlyn in good hands when we left for the night. It was always good to hear that they liked holding her at night. One of the Dads told me that when that she cried or needed to be fed there was no shortage of people willing to do it . (the nurses on the floor were good too)

- We are incredibly lucky to live in Edmonton as they are the leaders in the prairie provinces for pediatric cardiac care - there were lots of parents who were from out of town, so that was an added stress we didn't have to deal with

- I need a family picture as when I was sitting in the ER I realized there were no pictures of all 5 of us. I knew if something were to happen to her I might regret that

- that it is crappy when your 20 month old gets the stomach flu when your 1 month old is in the NICU ( Jarrett dealt with Parker and I visited Ashlyn)

- that I am happy with the medication we ended up with is two 1ml doses a day, the one we almost went home with was 8 ml, 3 times a day