July 1, Just Breathe

10:30am, Sunday.
Lindsey had a pretty uneventful night.  Her right ventricle is trying to compensate from having a sudden influx of circulation now that the left ventricle has help.  So, they will keep her on the vent and possibly look at weaning her tomorrow.  She has been awake on and off. Trying to talk, but understands that she has to wait until the tube comes out.  She is pretty aware of her surroundings and what is going on. 

Jason went to sacrament meeting today.  I was really glad.  I feel we need that in our day right now.  I stayed here with are two patients, going in between the two.  Gage woke up at 3:00 this morning confused and scared.  Jason and I had left when he went to sleep to try and get some sleep ourselves.  We went back to the RMH at 12:30, so we got more than we had thought we would get.  I came and laid in bed with Gage to calm him down and Jason went up on the 3rd floor to a sleep couch they had reserved for us. 

So, Gage has complete heart block.  What this means is that: the SA node in the top part of the heart makes the atriums (top part of the heart) contract and then sends the electrical signal to the AV node in the middle of the heart which makes the ventricles (bottom part of the heart) contract.  The AV node and the SA node are not communicating.  The atriums are beating at one beat and the ventricles are beating at a completely different beat.  Normal heart rate is 80-130 beats per minute.  Last night Gage's ventricle was beating at 40-45 beats per minute.  Which means he is only circulating about 20% of his blood volume.  Since the ventricles are responsible for pumping the blood to the rest of the body and the lungs that is giving him the tummy aches and fatigue.  The treatment for this is a pacemaker which will pace the ventricles so they are keeping the same beat as the atriums.  They have done nothing for him yet, but have had external pacer pads on him and a code cart in his room along with emergency drug drawn up at the bedside (always gives you a warm feeling).

At rounds today they talked about what might be the cause of this and wondered about doing an MRI to see if it is an infection.  They have decided that he is not stable enough to do that so they are going to go forward with the surgery to put in a pacemaker in this afternoon.  This will be a permanent thing that will help his electrical current communicate.  As to what is causing this.  They don't know, they have seen lots of heart blocks but nothing like this.  Wouldn't you know it.  That is it for now, thank you all for your prayers and support, we are indeed blessed to have so many loving people in our lives.

Gage watching a movie in his bed.  We will be okay as long as the TV keeps working. 



 Lindsey, sleeping for now but was awake earlier.  Excited I am sure to have Gage next door as her roommate.