Joshua Has An Event - Part II

Friday, Joshua wasn't feeling well. 

I learned something very important. 

You cannot teach an ESL kid much needed vocabulary in the midst of an event.  

"Joshua, are you light-headed?" 

Confused look.

"You know, like woozy," OR better yet, act it out: Mom sways and falls on the floor.

Is your heart beating too fast? Too slow? Irregular? 

(Clap beats to show what irregular means.)   

Dazed expression.

Yah, definitely need to work on the vocab.   
I realized that while needing to make a hasty exit, my big kids were dispersed around town at classes and to top it off, I had an extra little sweetheart in my care. So my first call was to these very special neighbors. (In these parts, a neighbor lives within a mile or two.) 

Dave was on my doorstep within five minutes. Love him!

Before I even had Joshua buckled in his car seat, all the kids were outside swinging with Dave and waving good-bye. I do regret not taking the time to explain to them what was going on. 

Once I was on the road, I HAD to text Cheryl, my friend who has led a very parallel foster care/adoption/transracial family life. We have joked over the years about our dirty messy crazy busy houses and if we had to call someone in an emergency, we hoped it might be each other because then it wouldn't matter, that level of dishevelment and organized chaos that we call home. I knew she would feel my pain.

Because I left my house messy busy AND dirty crazy. Oh well. 

Priorities you know.

And she added her prayers because that is who she is.

About halfway over, God said, "Tell Kristel." 

Yes, she is my closet prayer warrior.

Even though she lives on the Continental Divide now, she has my back.

Kind of like a dot in the middle of my heart-mommy square. 

I highly recommend that everyone have a Kristel.

Then I remembered to call my husband.

Yah, I'm a dud. 

If I was super worried, he would have been home in a flash and we would have gone together but this was new territory with Joshua and I didn't want him to miss work for a false alarm.

We rolled into the office around noon and they were all business.

Weight check, symptoms relayed, blood pressure was fine, O2 around 86-87 which is Joshua's normal. All the same from when we were there a week ago for our regular check-up.

My favorite nurse, Kris, hooked Joshua up to an EKG and within minutes said, "Oh! I can see what he's feeling. You did the right thing."

I wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or notch up the worry-o-meter. 

Basically, his heart was giving a little extra ta-dump on every third beat. 

This is called: Trigeminy Ventricular Ectopy. 

Not completely abnormal in the regular population but when you have a special heart like Joshua's, definitely concerning.

The Nurse Practitioner came in to triage us, heard his funky ta-dump, and said we would go home with a 24 hour Holter monitor so they could see what was going on over a longer period of time. She told me what to look for if things got worse and also sent us for some bloodwork. 

Before our regular doctor appeared, he wanted to know via the nurse if we had made our appointment in Boston yet.

Have I told you about that yet? Joshua is scheduled to have a full evaluation with the heart transplant team at Boston Children's Hospital in the beginning of May. 

I feel a Part III coming on. 

The doctor appeared and did a quick echo to make sure the muscle and the valve were the same as he had seen last week. He said it all looked fine. He was also glad this happened before our Boston trip so that it would be on the radar. He was going to send an e-mail letting Boston know right away..

Well. What is going on? Is it the beginning of Joshua's total heart failure?

Too soon to tell.   

At this point, Joshua was back to talking and smiling. The nurse, the nurse practitioner, and the doctor all assured Joshua he wasn't dying and sent us and a monitor on our merry way.  

We asked the girls in the office where to find the closest recommended Chinese food because giving blood requires a substantial reward! 

Especially when you are Joshua, and you've had quite a day already. 

At this point we are about 6 hours into this "event" and the funky beats were tapering off. Now that Joshua knew what was happening, he started calling out numbers every three to four minutes.

2.......14.......7.......2.......17.......and so on, very matter-of-fact.

That's how many times his heart was misfiring successively.

The kid cracks me up. He is so smart.  

Blood taken - no problem. He filled those vials like a champ. 

Let-me-tell-you, the Chinese at the restaurant ate this guy right up.

Especially the twenty-something girl.

She asked me, "How much did your son cost?"

Some things get lost in translation. 

Her mother who spoke no English ordered her to get Joshua chopsticks and then oohed and aahed at his proficiency.

Me, I was the proud mother.    

After we had our fill of delicious Chinese food, Joshua made an announcement.

"Mom, it's all done."

"What? Are you full?"

"No, my heart. It's all done."

Apparently noodles and dumplings are a cure-all. Next time, we will head straight for the soy sauce.

Joshua has been fine ever since. 

I think if we ask him one more time, "Hey man, how-ya feeling?",  he might defect/ or throw up on purpose/ or ask for more candy. 

Which he will most definitely get... 

Postscript: Blood work came back normal. Grrr....we wait for the monitor results due in this week.