CLEAR!! (zap!)

New Year's Eve, Brandon started coming down with my flu and started his afternoon with a nap. He then went upstairs to throw up about 3pm. Immediately following, his heart went into A-Fib (atrial fibrillation). He called down to me in the kitchen, asking me if I could come upstairs. I told him I couldn't, because I was melting chocolate on the stove for a treat for that night's festivities. A few minutes later, he called down again, same voice, same thing. I told him I really couldn't, but if he'd give me a couple minutes, I'd be done and would come up. (I figured he was working on the bathroom and needed help holding something up or measuring something.)

I went up there and he was lying on a blanket of towels sweating. He said he wanted me up there so in case he passed out, we would know. He was nervous, so he had me call his Mom for advice. He took a little bath, and a little later I told him we should go to the Instacare down the street. When we got there, we decided that it would be best to go straight to the ER in American Fork. It only took a few minutes to be admitted luckily. In the exam room, his heart rate shot up to 150 bpm. (which means that the top part was beating at about 300) They gave him a drug twice to slow his heart rate (which marginally worked) and then one to regulate it. It didn't kick out of it, so they decided to ambulance him over to Utah Valley hospital to be seen by their cardiologists. (I'm assuming that because it was New Year's Eve and theirs was gone?)

I drove to meet him there about 7:30pm and used that time to call our family and update. When I got to the ER, the front desk guy said he wasn't there yet. I checked the time and finally called the other ER to find out when they had left. They said he should have been there by now, but he might not be in the ER. I again asked the desk guy to check. He still didn't see Brandon's name anywhere, so he went into the ER to ask the people inside. The retard comes back out and proceeds to tell me that he's not there, but that he would probably be heading to the OR when he did. I freaked out a little and said, "I'm sorry, the OR????" He was like, "Well, maybe later?" He made me walk back out to the parking lot to get to the front of the hospital to find Brandon. So I'm upset, and trying to hurry through the parking lot, prego belly contracting....I was so mad. I ask the lady in Admitting about it. She's like, "He's not here yet, but when he is, this is his room number." I knew he should have been there by then and what the crap??? Anyway, my Mom and Step-Dad showed up just then, followed shortly by my brother. We talked for a minute and then decided to go up to Brandon's room and wait. Brandon was there the WHOLE TIME. BLAH.

My brother Paul and Step-Dad Larry gave Brandon a blessing and a few minutes later the doctor came in and explained what was going on to us. They decided to try and do some tests to find the cause rather than just shock him right then. He was given more of the same drugs throughout the night to try and kick it back into rhythm by itself, but they didn't work. (I had a couch in his room to sleep on, sheets and all, but there is no sleeping on that.) At 5 am they decided to just shock him. It was interesting. They gave him a fast-acting and fast-leaving sedative and proceeded with the defibrillator. I was in the room, but didn't watch. As soon as he was out, they shocked him and it worked to put him back into normal rhythm immediately. He was back awake about 1 minute later. After sitting around ALL DAY, someone finally came in about 3:45pm to do a heart ultrasound, then made us wait for a doctor to view the results. Apparently, there wasn't much to talk about, cause he never saw another doctor that day. He was finally discharged at 7pm by a kind nurse. Anyway, he feels fine and has felt fine since he was shocked. Yay Brandon.


Here he is getting hooked up with some of the 30 million wires he ended up with.

Here is a fun one I took of Seth and Brandon just before midnight. We had to make our own fun.

And just to prove I was there...those are my feet.

Here he is getting the chest ultrasound. It was really interesting, but since I hadn't slept well, I kept falling asleep against the wall.

And here he is, all perked up in the afternoon. Again, making our own fun.

Thanks for all the concern, he has a follow-up appt. next week and they put him on some medication. He is feeling fine, and is working on the house already. How was your New Year's??