a (lot of) funny thing(s) happened to me at the hospital

well, slight damper on things:  i've been in the hospital since friday.  i've been experiencing heart palpitations for a little over six weeks, with increasing frequency/severity.  last weekend during emre's birthday party there were a few moments where i really felt close to passing out, so last week i mentioned it to my OB/GYN, and she ordered some blood work.  when that came back normal, she said i should see a cardiologist immediately.  this was when my first inkling of fear set in.  we scheduled the appointment for thursday, when i met with the cardiologist that our pediatrician had recommended (they work in the same hospital).  she ordered a series of tests and fit me with a halter that i was to wear for 24 hours. every time i experienced a palpitation, i was to hit a button on the monitor.  ben says he was a bit alarmed by the frequency with which i was hitting the button (60 times in 24 hours - of course not including any during sleep).

we returned to the hospital friday morning for what we thought would be a quick visit/consultation with the doctor.  i honestly thought she'd say it's just due to the pregnancy, and to take it easy.  instead, we waited & waited in the lobby.  when i watched the doctor, papers in hand, walk across to another cardiologist's office, i joked to ben 'uh-oh, she's so alarmed by my results she needs a second opinion!'  we both laughed, but it turns out that was in fact the case.  a few minutes later she walked right up to me in the lobby, sat down, and said 'your condition is very serious and i need to hospitalize you.'  my heart rate had been spiking up to 200 beats/minute.  at this moment i burst into tears.  

turns out the doctor felt really bad about breaking the news that way and wrote it off to a language barrier (i'm not entirely sure i agree, but i won't hold it against her).  turkey is funny like that- it seems like doctors either try to withhold the truth from the patient - letting them down 'gently' (which i hate), or they are blunt as hell.  surely we can meet somewhere in the middle?

ben and i spent the rest of that morning kind of freaking out, debating just jumping on a plane to the states to seek further opinions, and making phone calls.  we had no idea what we faced, what was causing this, etc.  we feel more comfortable with healthcare in the us, but the head cardiologist advised us that getting on a plane at this time was not a good idea for me.  it's a little crazy when your day unexpectedly stops and you are being admitted to the hospital: no returning to work to finish up the day's tasks or shut down your laptop, no picking emre up from daycare, no going out for a nice friday night family dinner as we had planned, no putting my son to bed or waking him up in the morning - as i had every day since his birth.  no going HOME.

our first order of business was to find me a room in the cardiovascular unit - there were currently none available.  we had a very sad lunch in the hospital cafe (i was sad - i was scared - i was especially concerned about how emre was going to handle my absence for the next several days).  i sat there crying until our pediatrician came up to me and tried to put me at ease.  she explained that she too has an arrhythmia and that the doctors here are very good, and even though it is a scary thing to go through in a foreign country, i had nothing to worry about.  they were just taking extra precautions.  and that emre would be fine.  that's what i really needed to hear at that moment, and i thank her for it.

ben's dad had since arrived and, in turkey, it's all about who you know.  turns out ben's dad knows the owner of the hospital - who was in dubai - so he made some phone calls and all of a sudden a room was available and we were escorted upstairs like VIP's.  they put us in a nice room at the end of the hall- a single room, thank god.  that unit was filled with terribly ill people and i was just glad i could somewhat distance my pregnant self from it all.  next they did another EKG and then gave me my first beta blocker to help stop the arrhythmia.  then we waited, and waited, and waited for the doctor to come.  she finally did, basically just looked at me, and said i would be fine, and left (i haven't seen her since then).  then they hooked me up to a heart monitor, but with the frequency of the arrhythmia decided i needed to be moved closer to the nurse's station (luckily still a private room, but much louder & surrounded by sick folks).  i settled in for my stay.

ben of course was the best throughout all of this.  he's juggled a million logistics: translating, getting info on the doctors & the meds & calling our OB/GYN to get her take on it all… he went home and packed me everything i needed to be comfortable here, checked on emre & his nanny (who has been wonderful & spent the weekend with emre while ben runs back and forth), ran back to the hospital and stayed with me until 9:30 when he returned home to relieve the nanny for the night.

i was able to talk to my cousin on friday and send him my test results.  he is completing his residency in cardiovascular surgery and has advised me & shown my tests to all of his colleagues, experts on my condition, to get their input.  i was so relieved to hear they would be treating me exactly the same if i were in their care - same tests, meds, hospitalization, etc.  

i was also relieved to hear that my cousin thought this could likely be related to my pregnancy (the turkish doctors were very quick to say it is in no way related - we've yet to get any explanation as to why they think that - information is not terribly forthcoming here).  of course, we won't know anything for sure until i'm not pregnant & we can see if the arrhythmia continues.

my first night in the hospital was a long one - i was horribly homesick for emre & ben.  add to that nurses coming in every 30 minutes or so, turning on all of the (BRIGHT) lights in my room & asking if i was ok.  or sometimes, just looking at me.  one nurse walked out and left all of the lights on.  almost ALL of them failed to close the door behind them.  pretty frustrating when you are hooked up to machines and can't get out of bed!  6am is wake up time here (all of the lights on, 'its the morning!' and more testing, poking & prodding begins).  i think i got maybe a few hours of sleep at best.

saturday morning i had more testing & more doctors.  all morning people were in & out of my room.  of course, with my limited turkish ability & their limited english (and ben home with emre), it was interesting at times.  at one point 7 people walked into my room and looked at me.  i looked back at them.  one of them, the doctor, i presume, since he was not in scrubs, asked me where i am from.  i said 'new york.'  they all nodded and left.

the head cardiologist said he wanted me to have an arrhythmia during an EKG so they could see in what part of the heart specifically it was happening.  so, a team walked back into my room, wheeling an EKG machine, and attached all of the sensors to my chest.  then they all looked at me like, 'well?'  at this point i explained i couldn't do it on queue, they had to wait.  then, while they were chatting, i began to have one and shouted 'now!  now!' in turkish.  they all scrambled, but it turned out none of them could find the button to turn the machine ON - or they were too flustered to remember.  we missed it.  then, it happened again and they caught the tail end (flustered, again).  then, they finally caught one.  the doctor ripped the sheet off the machine & put it over my feet, on the bed, while he read it.  he confirmed it was coming from my top right ventricle.  success!  

later that morning my OB/GYN stopped by to check on me & ordered an ultrasound so we could check on the baby.  much to my relief everything was fine, he's completely oblivious to all of this.  

after the EKG, they took me off the heart monitor and, in the afternoon, moved me to a room on the cardiology floor (not as serious, and much more quiet) and i spent the afternoon feeling largely ignored & wondering why i was even in the hospital.  later, when the arrhythmias returned, we called the nurse.  ben asked her to bring the heart monitor so we could track them - she felt my pulse and said it was fine (very few of the nurses seem to understand that the arrhythmia is not ongoing, and if i'm not having one then YES everything WILL appear fine).  she reluctantly brought the monitor in, at ben's insistence.  she attached the sensors to my chest and put my finger in the oxygen reader, took my blood pressure.  again, she confirmed everything was fine.  i had an arrhythmia and was surprised when the heart rate on the screen didn't spike, as it usually did.  this happened a couple of times, and finally i looked down at my chest and realized that the nurse never attached the wires to the sensors - i just had a bunch of stickers on my chest under my shirt.  we called the nurse back in and she asked if i had taken them off (no, YOU never PUT THEM ON!).  she said it 'didn't matter,' but attached them anyway.  sure enough, my heart rate spiked during the next arrhythmia, much to her surprise.  

the doctors returned to my room.  ben was there, thankfully, when they decided they wanted to switch my meds (rather than just adjust the dosage, which was my preference).  the doctor on duty told ben they had checked with the head cardiologist and he confirmed the new drug would be safe for the baby.  ben did some quick research - on his phone - and found that it was not at ALL safe for the baby, but to be used as a last resort.  the doctor agreed, but mentioned that at this time the mother is their first concern, the baby secondary.  that really put me over the edge.  ben spoke more with the doctor and convinced him to leave me on the beta blockers but increase the dose.  25 more mg's later and the arrhythmia disappeared, again.  incredible.

for now we're just trying to get the meds balanced so that the arrhythmia remains under control throughout the day/night.  then we can think about further testing in the states, second opinions, etc.  probably it will be most important after my pregnancy to get tested in the states & determine if this is in fact related to the pregnancy (i'm totally betting on that - and hoping for it, of course).  as my cousin explained, it just happens to some pregnant women, and they have no idea why.  but as my OB/GYN pointed out, they also tend to go away in the second trimester and are not as severe.  so, who knows.

right now i'm just grateful my doctor knew i needed to see a cardiologist and forced me to go.  i didn't know how serious it  was, or that i was putting myself in jeopardy by walking around like everything was normal.  glad we caught it in time.

hopefully i will go home monday - but i'll be sure to post an update here, regardless.  

how was your weekend?