When I was in college my roommates and I had a weekly roommate
dinner. During that time we'd share our weekly highs & lows. For this post I'll start with some lows and end on highs.
Iris seems to have had an SVT episode last night. She's on medication
that is supposed to keep them from happening, but it's possible that
it's not working as well since she's gotten bigger and is on the low end
of the dosage. Apparently it's possible to have SVT episodes that go by
totally unnoticed by parents. But in Iris's case she screams at the top
of her lungs and can't stop crying for the duration of the episode.
This is what happened last night around 9:30. Evan and I were both
asleep and she started wailing out of nowhere. We tried some Vegel
maneuvers on her, which slow the heart down. I've seen her heart rate
get up in the 220 range. When she sleeps she's averaging about 100 these
days and when we finally were able to get a reading on her last night
she was at 170. We don't know for sure that it was an SVT episode but it
seems likely, mostly because there's nothing else that we can think of
to explain it.
Yesterday morning we had an appointment
with genetics. Her first round of genetic testing showed no
abnormalities, which is a relief. However the geneticist suggested we
get additional testing to see whether Iris has some other syndromes that
would change her future care. The idea is that she might be more
susceptible to aneurysms. I was dismayed to hear this...I want to
believe that the worst is behind us, but I have the nagging suspicion
that it is not and I frequently wonder whether Evan and I will outlive our daughter.
After
we were done with the appointment, Iris and I walked [well, she sat in the stroller] across the
Anschutz Medical Campus to get food at Udi's. I became very wistful
when I saw all the people there taking breaks from their jobs. It's
very difficult for me not to have any kind of professional life right
now. Yes, I love spending time with Iris but the days can be very long
and there's a constant feeling that I'm not spending enough time
with her when I try to do other work.
Something that is both a high and a low: Evan has been working really,
really hard. I think I write that in almost every post. Despite the
diluvial rains he managed to stain our interior doors in the garage and
finished installing the kitchen cabinets. I'm grateful that he has
worked so hard on the house but he has worn himself out and had to come
home early on Monday to take a nap and buy himself some meat to eat.
Now the highs.
We went to Costco this morning. That's not the high. The people in the Costco parking lot are the high. They are
some of the best people in Denver. Every time I go [once a week] someone
in the parking lot helps me. Today it was an older gentleman with a New
York accent who said, "I'll take that cart for you. You've done enough
work." Another high -- Evan and I took Iris out for breakfast this
weekend. She did great and we thoroughly enjoyed our morning. Third,
having a babysitter come to watch Iris is amazing. I was able to get a
little work done on my dissertation and ended up going to get my hair
cut. It's a bit shorter than I had wanted but it feels good to have short hair again.
