Jiminy Cricket

I'm being stupid. There is a medical term called bigeminy (pronounced by-jiminy, hence the Jiminy Cricket comment) where one premature beat is paired with a normal beat in a repetitive sequence. We had not heard of this term until Thursday evening.

Bailey had a few episodes at school on Thursday which made her feel light-headed, dizzy and short of breath. I was summoned away from work a little early and we were ultimately sent to the E.R. at Riley to see what was going on. Not having any answers yet, and having difficulty fighting off curiosities of whether this was the start of something "big", we were pretty nervous. They hooked Bailey up to an EKG machine, gave her a button, and said, "When you feel something happening, push this button and the EKG will record the eposide." We didn't have to wait too long before it happened . . . and it was the biggest eposide she had - dizzy, light-headed, short of breath and finally, when it was all over, completely wiped out. The biggested part of it only lasted about 5 minutes, but she was melted to the hospital bed and all sweaty like she had just ran a mile. We were told we were staying the night for observation. We snuggled into our corner room on the Heart Center and tried to stay awake to watch the Olympics, women's individual gymnastic finals, but couldn't stay awake that long. I was awakened at about 2:00 in the morning by a resident coming loudly into our room, "Bailey, I'm really sorry, but I have to wake you up. Your blood pressure is pretty low [50's/20's] and if we can raise it by waking you up and doing a little exercise, we won't worry. But if we can't get it higher, then we'll have to worry. So! Stand up and let's do some stretches and squats! I'll do them with you." As I lay there pretending to be asleep and wondering if I should worry, I hear Bailey giggling and then the doctor giggling and then our nurse Angie starts to giggle. It's like a party! Apparently, it worked, because about 60 seconds into the party, the resident says, "That's great Bailey. Thank you. You can go back to sleep now!" And she did!

Then a few other times throughout the night, I hear, "Bailey, Bailey, are you feeling ok?" I guess her B.P. and her heart beats played tricks all night long. Dr. Darragh popped in before he got started with his day to let us know that he wasn't too worried about the bigeminy going on. Though they're not certain what is causing it, he says it's possible it could be a combinatin of anxiety from the start of the new school year, a little dehydration, and maybe some meds need to be tweaked. He was sure to tell us that everything else about her looked great. That's a relief! We were sent home Friday afternoon, and Bailey has felt wonderful since. It really was nice to see some of our friends from the echo lab, the Heart Center, and even meeting some new friends in the E.R. - our nurse Jenny (another Jenny! I wonder if ALL nurses named Jenny are wonderful?!), our EKG guy Chad, and our I.V. guy (didn't catch his name, but Bailey says he's the best I.V. guy she's ever had). But next time Bailey wants to go back for a visit, she just needs to let me know. There are easier ways.

Hope all is well!

Come on out to the Mount Comfort Air Show next weekend! It's for a GREAT cause!!

Angie