One of the most frightening days of my life. (Repost from Myspace around April 2007)

Cover of Urgent Care (Healing Touch Series #3)

We had a scary Easter Sunday. Yes, I still celebrate Easter.

We went up to my dad's in Mayville to spend the night Saturday night.

All afternoon and evening my son, Matt, was just lethargic. All he did was lay and watch T.V. We thought he was coming down with something. The only time he is quiet and still is when he is ill.

We kept asking if he's alright and he said he's just tired. He didn't really eat anything. We had a ham dinner Saturday night, he just laid on the couch.

Sunday morning. We were going to go to church. The kids got up, except Matt, and found their Easter baskets. Adam and Natalie were thrilled. They came up and told Matt what he got. He still didn't want to get out of bed. He was just lying there, didn't want to talk, didn't want to move. I could see his pulse in his neck. His whole body was moving with his heartbeat. It was weird. We knew something was wrong.

We decided to go home right away. My wife, Laura, was calling our clinic. They have an on call nurse thing. While I was loading up the car, they asked her to take his pulse. She got like 112. They didn't think that was too bad.

So we get home. Matt seemed to perk up a little, but then he just sat on the couch and kind of dozed off and on. He had no energy. I take his pulse and get around 185. Laura calls the nurse again. He says we should take him to Children's Hospital.

So we pack everyone up and head to Children's. We take him to Urgent Care. They check him out and send us down to Emergency. They get us in a room right away and hook him up to an EKG machine. I see on the screen that his heart is going in the 190's! Holy shit! (normal heart rate at rest is around 90 give or take for an 8 year old) Matt's either being a trooper through all this or he's just too exhausted to complain. Probably a little of both.

So now we wait. They put in a StarWars movie for us. We watch some of that. Finally, we talk to a doctor and they tell us he's dehydrated, they're going to start fluids and shit. I ask if he's going to be there for awhile, they say yes. So I make arrangements to have someone watch Adam and Natalie while we're at the hospital.

I drop the other two off at home with Auntie Jan and come back. Matt's got an I.V. in his arm. He's hooked up to another EKG or EEG, whatever, there's like 25 different wires coming off him. His heart is down to the 170's A slight improvement from the fluids. But it's still high. They are playing around with the EKG trying to get a printout to see something.

So they tell us they called the cardiologist to come in because he's not in a place where they can fax him the printout.

The cardiologist shows up. He's very nice and explains what he thinks is going on. I nod and say "Uh-huh", like I understand what the fuck he is saying. He says they want to try a "push" of some drug that will allow Matt's heart to "pause" and reset at a normal rate.

Wait a minute...pause?...what do you mean pause?

We say, "Okay, do what you gotta do." We explain to Matt that they don't have to stick him again, they'll push this stuff right into the I.V.

They do this push, the first time they don't get the desired result. They didn't see the pause. I saw his heart rate jump up over 200. They hit him a second time. This time the poor kid kind of groans. He freaks out a little. Later on he described it as feeling his shoulders getting really hot. Anyway, the second push did what they were hoping. They saw the "pause" and his heart rate went down to the 120's and below. The docs are saying, "I like that, that looks good.", "Very good". Things you want to hear when your son's lying on a gurney in the E.R.

They call in a technician to do an echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart. That shows his heart is normal and working fine. That's a relief.

So, the bottom line is this. He's got a supraventricular tachycardia. Which is basically a short circuit in his heart. The electric signal just took a shortcut from its normal path and made his heart beat too fast. It is not life-threatening. He is being treated with medication to prevent it from happening again. Eventually, we will likely have a procedure done to block the short circuit so he doesn't have to be on the meds for the rest of his life.

My children are my beating heart. They are the rising and setting of my sun. This was an ordeal that brings me to appreciate even more deeply the blessings that these children are. This could have very well been a serious, life-threatening, heart condition. Thankfully, it turns out to be a treatable, correctable inconvenience, a nusience. Not to mention one hell of a medical bill.