SVT

What a bad week we have been having :o(, I hope it gets better after this "hump day" rather than staying the same or, I pray not, worse!

Sunday night Daddy couldn't find the syringe we usually use to give Miss K her Propanolol so he pulled a "new" one from the cupboard.  He failed to check and make sure it wasn't plugged though.  Propanolol is crazy weird, when left spilled on something or left in an unused syringe for days it will harden like hard candy and it takes boiling water and lots of patience to get it out.  The syringe Daddy happened to choose was one of the old ones we hadn't used in a while that did not get rinsed out therefore it was plugged...and he didn't notice.  So Sunday night he thought he gave Miss K her Propanolol but instead he gave her absolutely nothing, the syringe did not fill even though it looked like it did since Propanolol is clear as water.  That's 1 skipped dose.  Then Monday morning I gave her Propanolol in the same syringe, not knowing it was a different one than what we had been using before therefore I also did not check it.  That's 2 skipped doses in one 24 hour period, back to back.  Her afternoon dose was when I figured it out, I "filled" the syringe and gave it to her...but realized she never swallowed, she just smacked her lips and gave me a funny look like "what was that supposed to be Mom?" so at this point I inspected the syringe I was using and figured out what had happened.  I got a new, clean syringe out and gave her a real dose of Propanolol and then prayed she would do OK without the other two doses.

Monday I also realized Miss K did not feel well and was acting like she had an ear infection so I got her in to see her Pediatrician.  She showed all the classic signs through the whole appointment but when examined she had no redness or inflamation, not in her ears or her throat.  Her Pediatrician did notice that her back gums are swollen and she for sure has molars coming in, he attributed her symptoms to this and gave her a clean bill of health.  He even said her heart sounded perfect.

Monday night Miss K spent the night playing in her crib, literally all night.  No crying just sweet talking and playing.

Tuesday morning Miss K woke up with a fever, the first fever she has ever had.  It was at 101 F.  I gave her Ibuprophine and the fever came down pretty quickly but she spent the day miserable and crying.  She even fell asleep in the middle of the front room floor while playing, something she normally would NEVER do.  She took an hour nap but woke up with the fever all over again.  Her heart rate stayed at a steady 150-160 throughout the day while she was awake and active, and while sleeping it was in the 130's.  Her normal active heart rate is 100-110 and her normal resting heart rate is between 80-90.  I gave her Tylenol to help with the returned fever and called PCMC.  At this point it was after hours so I had to have the on call Pediatric Cardiologist paged.  I asked him about the high heart rate and told him her symptoms all day, he assured me she was fine and that it was just high because of the fever and possibly dehydration.  It made me feel somewhat better hearing this and I felt comfortable putting her to bed last night with another dose of Ibuprophine knowing that she should be OK.

Again Miss K spent the night playing in her crib off and on, she didn't sleep much at all.

This morning she woke up with a lower fever of about 99 F.  I held off giving her anything for it so that it could burn off whatever illness she may be fighting.  But around 11:00am she started to get fussy again and just wanted to be held.  I picked her up for the dozenth time that morning to find that her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest.  I check her to find that she was in SVT :o(.  It took me almost 5 minutes to get her out of it.  Then I gave her some Ibuprophine for the fever and whatever pain she was obviously in.  An hour later, after constant tears and miserable crying, I found that she was in SVT yet again.  This time she was upset and the only thing she thought could make her happy was sleep but I couldn't let her sleep until I knew she was out of SVT.  I tried our usual Physical Maneuvers with no success.  After 10 minutes of trying Daddy came home for lunch and suggested we give in and try the icebag treatment.  I hate this one.  But I gave in and pulled out the frozen peas, poured some into a ziplock baggie and we sat on the floor together with Miss K.  Daddy held her in his arms and I placed the bag on her head, I decided to try the nicer version and just put the bag on her forehead and the bridge of her nose rather than the recommended suffocation version.  We got lucky and it did work, on the first try.  It really upset her though and had her crying so hard she had the hiccups :o(.

After all that stress was over I rocked her to sleep and put her down for a very early nap, where she is right now.  I've been checking on her constantly and at this moment I know for a fact that her heart rate is in the 120's.

The 2 missed doses were very bad timing.  Miss K has a hard time being sick and it never fails when she doesn't feel well she has SVT episodes.  We just had to top it off with a high fever, something that makes every person (healthy or not) have a higher heart rate than normal.  Poor baby :o(.

**Added Note:

Miss K had 1 more SVT episode before the end of the day.  3 in one day...Wow.  This last episode required the ice treatment again.  It was tough since Miss K knew what was coming and started to fight it immediately, she cried and was heartbroken that we would do such a mean thing again :o(.  But it did work.  Miss K ended the day with a much better active heart rate of about 120.