Ben had another SVT episode last night. A little background – Ben has Wolff Parkinson White syndrome (WPW) which is an electrical malfunction of his heart that causes an extra electrical pathway. When triggered that pathway shorts out the regular beating cycle and causes it to beat twice as fast (usually up around 270 to 300 beats per minutes). Yesterday afternoon at about 4:45 I noticed he had fallen back asleep after just having woken from a nap roughly 30 minutes earlier and that he was a bit pale. I checked his heart rate and it was elevated but didn’t sound like the last time he went into SVT. I checked in with the cardiologist, he said to head to the emergency room to get him checked out. DH raced home from work and we headed straight there. Thankfully we did not have to wait in the very full waiting room – they quickly checked us in, even more quickly checked his pulse and sent us back to a room. Once in the room a group of about 6 doctors and nurses assembled to try an ice treatment which basically consists of them taking a ziploc baggy full of ice water and holding it over his face for 10-15 seconds to shock his body into slowing his heart rate down. It worked and his heart rate came down and regulated soon after.

We also found out that Ben also has a bad case of RSV. He had just started coughing about 2 days ago but it hadn’t been too bad. Last night by the time we got to the hospital he was pretty congested so they did a RSV test as a precaution and it was positive. After some pretty nasty suctioning he seems to be coping well with that. It’s likely that the RSV triggered the SVT so we’ll have to keep a close eye on him but so far he seems to be doing well.

I also have to mention that I am so thankful for close friends. As I was calling to make arrangements for Evey before we left I came upon answering machine after answering machine until I called a close friend of ours, Brad. Without question or hesitation he packed up his kids, picked up Evey and he and his wife kept her overnight and took her to the sitter this morning so we could concentrate on Ben. This isn’t the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last that the two of them have come to our rescue without a second thought. Thank you so much.