About two and a half weeks ago Avigayil's nurse was here. There was a small but highly annoying problem with her monitor and she decided to send it to the lab. In it's place we were given a smaller more portable monitor.
On the first night that we had it, the monitor told us that Avigayil's heart rate was dropping into the 30's. We immediately called the doctor. He said it was most likely a technical issue as it was unlikely that she had such a cardiac change. We then called the nurse back and after a while it showed her heart rate much higher. Over the next two weeks it showed several drops like this however, the saturations it was showing were also not correct. Finally, I called the company and told them we needed to switch back.
When they brought back her old monitor the saturations were believable again but she continued to have episodes where her heart rate dropped dramatically. I called the doctor right away. "Could this actually be happening?" Since this was a good and trusted monitor and we could tell that is was reading correctly he spoke with her cardiologist. She immediately enrolled Avigayil in a program to find out what is going on. Since she had a 24 hour halter only 4 months ago and this would be a dramatic change from that they are worried. I am still holding out for technical error. The doctors' best hope is that all of the difficulty breathing that she has been having lately has put too much stress on her heart and that she has developed a severe sinus arrhythmia. All other alternatives are much worse.
We started last night with a new piece of equipment. It is basically a tiny ECG machine. When Avigayil has an episode we put it on her and it beeps and makes all kinds of noise for about 30 seconds (seriously, it sounds like something is going to blow up). Then we call the monitor company (yet another company for us to deal with) and are connected straight to a cardiologist on call. We then transmit her ECG buy phone. It sounds a lot like the old dial up modems from the 90s.
The doctor is able to give us results right away and let us know if everything is ok or if we should contact the doctor or go to the hospital. A report is also sent to her regular cardiologist at the hospital.
We are hoping for a good outcome but there is a chance of permanent damage. We will not know for a few months. Please continue to keep Avigayil in your teffilos.
PS. Check out SZ's recent facebook post about new equipment for the NICU. Be sure to like and share it. Thank you. See it here
