An Irregular Heartbeat

Well, I go away for about 36 hours, and look what happens. Dr. T came back into town (yeah!!) yesterday, and increased the heart rate on Bailey's pump from 90 to 115 beats per minute. Apparently, the echo they did last week showed that her PA pressure had plateaued, and they wanted to see if taking more load off her heart would bring it down even further. But the increase caused her heart to beat irregularly. They gave her some magnesium and backed off to 100 beats per minute, and it has been beating fine all day today. They didn't seem to be worried about anything. Since she has a history in the past of irregular heartbeat, they weren't too surprised. At least, that's what I understand second-handed. I haven't talked to any doctor directly since I was home for the weekend.

And it was a beautiful weekend! I even mowed the grass for the first time this year. And, oh, my back is aching. I'm out of shape. We had a fire in our outdoor fireplace last night, and then I took a nice long, relaxing bath. Last week was a hard week. Probably a combination of several things, but Bailey and I just didn't seem to be on the same wavelength. I think we were both dealing with our own emotions and just got a little out of whack. I'm feeling better about this week. I think it will be better. She did an incredible job on her homework tonight. She's been working on it for about 2 hours now. Science is done; Social Studies is done; English/Grammar is just two spelling tests short of being done; and all we have left this week is math. This is exactly where we wanted to be. Hopefully we'll get math done this week. Michelle, her teacher here at Riley, is coming at 10:00 in the morning this week and staying until noon so we can get math cleared up - she normally comes at 11:00 for only an hour. We'll both be very excited when school is over.

Marissa and Josie have started playing softball. I don't know what Marissa's league is called, but they don't count any outs (everyone bats and hits), and they don't play any positions (everyone lines up in the infield). She had her first game last week, but still hasn't generated enough nerve to bat - she doesn't like anyone watching her. I hope she can work through her fear, though, because she really is a very good hitter. Josie's first game last week was rained out. I hope I get to go to a game or two!

We had fun on Saturday. Tom worked, so I took the girls to the park (where I was talking on the phone with Scott and swallowed a bug!! Ugghhhh!!! I could never do Fear Factor), then we went for ice cream, and then we played with crawdads in a little stream. Josie about wet her pants when she poked one of them with a stick and it darted off as quick as lightning. Haha!! We had a really fun time. The girls were filthy dirty at the end of the day - that ALWAYS means they had a great day.

Colin came to visit today with his dad and his friend, Brandon. Brandon became paralyzed as a result of a wrestling accident in high school and is now in a wheelchair. The two of them are nuts! They're such nice boys. We had a good time visiting with them. They were both pointing out shells and beads that Bailey can use to make them necklaces and bracelets.

I don't think there's too much more to report on. It's good to be back. People are like family here. We're gonna miss them when we go home!

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Angie