Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Medical Overload!

Since January we have had sickness of one kind or another in our house and been in and out of the Doctor's office.  I have never been to the ER so many times in my whole life put together (not including when I work there.)  Rob, I think, is finally over his upper respiratory infection (it took 3 months), but we still have a frog beside our bed, spewing mist on us all night long.


 We also have a cabinet that  looks like an 80 year old lives with us.

I am taking antibiotics every day now to combat urinary tract infections that keep coming back.  It's a 90 day supply.  I also, after 8 weeks of almost weekly visits and a biopsy have been given cream to use on a site that is "on the verge of precancerous."  The cream makes it hurt almost as much as it did anyway, so we are just holding steady with that one.  I have to put the cream on for 8 weeks.
Then, after our sweet Monica died so suddenly

and nothing showed up on the autopsy, I was convinced it was an arrhythmia that was never diagnosed, so I took all the boys in to get an EKG from the pediatrician.    Some of them, like long QT syndrome are inherited, so I wanted to be sure.  The pediatrician was obliging.  Max's was normal, but Joseph's and Sam's came back abnormal.  They both had a quick and large T wave (repolarization).

 Today we went to have them rechecked by the cardiologist and have him compare it with Rob's.  Joseph's actually looked a lot better.  Rob's was normal.  They then decided to do me, since I like to faint.  Mine was bradycardic (49 beats a minute, oh yeah!!), but otherwise fine.  Sam's was still not normal.  The cardiologist told us that it looks very much like Brugada Syndrome.  He can't be sure until they do a drug trial with procainamide to see if they can make the T wave get even bigger.  I asked about the problems with this and he said that it could make his heart start to fibulate and then they would have to shock him.  He was wondering if he should do it at the on base hospital or down at Children's and I said, "um, I think if there is even a possibility of having his heart fibulate you better have him somewhere where they can take care of him!"  He got the hint and we are to hear from Cincinnati Children's hospital soon about scheduling the drug trial.
I feel like I have opened a can of worms.  Would it have been better not to know, to not have to make him go through all this and have the potential for him to have a fibulating heart by something we did?  If he has it, they won't agree to let him do any competitive sports.  He was devastated about that!  And he might have to have a pacemaker inserted.  We left the hospital today with him yelling at his heart that it had better work correctly next time!
Health wise, this hasn't been the best year ever for us.  Here's hoping it gets better!
PS I haven't taken Emma in yet, because she says she has to loose 5 pounds before she goes in to see a doctor again.  The cardiologist said, "No she doesn't need to loose 5 pounds.  Get her in to do the EKG." So we will be back up to the hospital again soon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems that diagnotistic test often have a down side. It is however, better for you mom to know than to worry. The test could however prove that Sam's heart just beats to a different beat but it's a good heart.

Searls Stuff said...

You sure have had a refiner's fire burning brightly at your place. Hang on tight to the promise that He won't give you more than you can handle.

Princess and A BYU Fan said...

What the devil?! I hope all of our Kress' are okay. Every single one of them!!