ER Visit # 3

On Tuesday night I started getting a cough.  I woke up Wednesday not feeling well at all so Seth worked from home.  I spent the day emailing back and forth with my Nurse Practitioner and OB nurses.  They wanted me to come in on Thursday to check out the symptoms.  Since it wasn't a normally scheduled visit, I ended up seeing the only doctor available at the time.  She recommended I go to the ER to rule out any issues.  

I was having trouble breathing (talking makes me out of breath), lethargy, and over the past few weeks (thanks to my Fitbit) I've noticed that my heartbeat has been increasing significantly.  Before I was pregnant, my heart rate was in the high 50's to low 60's.  It's steadily increased (which is to be expected when you're pregnant because of all the extra blood).  At the beginning of October it started staying in the low 70's, November was high 70's and this month it's been in the low 80's.  Today it is 87.  These are the resting heart rates while I am sleeping which wouldn't be alarming if my heart rate stayed closer to those rates while I'm up.  During the day, my heart rate will stay in the 90's to 120's  even when I am just sitting down (yesterday it hung around 132).  I don't have energy to do much so I am not working out or walking (we even get groceries delivered now).  Having such a high HR freaked me out (for example right now it's at 107 and I am sitting in a chair typing) so I thought I better take the doctor's advice.

Seth left work early and met me at the apartment so we could drive over to the ER together.  I had to do several tests like an EKG and a VQ Scan.  The VQ scan was not my favorite since I had to wear an oxygen type mask and breathe in a thicker air which would make me cough.  They also put a dye in my IV to see how the blood was transporting oxygen.  After being there for 4 hours they told me everything was normal.  I felt a little silly for going, but at least I can have peace of mind.  Everything is fine with the babies which is most important.  I'm just stuck with bronchitis and a higher than average pregnancy heart rate!  

I hated being strapped to this machine because I felt trapped.  Especially since being on your back while pregnant is one of the least comfortable positions to be in.

Breathing in the thicker air stuff so they could see my lungs.

Doing the imaging with the IV in.  The machine rotated around my body.

Hopefully that was my last hospital visit until I am actually delivering the boys!