While we visited Oliver yesterday he had a severe heart rate deceleration - the heart rate plotting line went flat, the monitor alarms went off, nurses came running, and his mother's heart started beating twice as fast to compensate for his lack of cardiac activity. The doctor and nurse have told us that he has had a couple of these heart stopping moments, often followed by an extreme increase in heart rate as his body tries to kick itself back into gear, several times a day for the past few days. Today a specialist came in and started a detailed, 24-hour study of his heart that will hopefully inform us about what part of his heart is causing the problems and how it can be resolved if he doesn't grow out of it himself. His little chest is half covered with sensors and wires!
Talking to the doctor was very reassuring today as she explained that little babies, especially preemies, are much more resilient than adults in bearing extreme heart rate changes, and that even going a day with an extreme heart rate does not cause any damage. That was a great relief! So far Oliver has been able to recover from each of the incidents on his own within the 5-10 minutes they give him before they would start intervening to get his heart rate back to normal. We'll get the results from the heart study probably by Friday.
Talking to the doctor was very reassuring today as she explained that little babies, especially preemies, are much more resilient than adults in bearing extreme heart rate changes, and that even going a day with an extreme heart rate does not cause any damage. That was a great relief! So far Oliver has been able to recover from each of the incidents on his own within the 5-10 minutes they give him before they would start intervening to get his heart rate back to normal. We'll get the results from the heart study probably by Friday.
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