My Secret Almost out!

Well today was the first day back at kindy after the Autumn break. The boys were pretty tired, it was pouring down with rain and it didn't seem all that appealing to go out anywhere. Then the arguing over toys began, and all of a sudden I found an amazing well of energy. I got both the boys in their coats and to kindy in record time (Well, actually I was late but only by a few minutes).

Luckily for me(but not so much for her) one of my younger sisters, whom from now on i shall refer to as lil' one was on Parent help. The boys couldn't wait for me to leave so they could begin playing with Aunty lil' one and their cousin and friends. It was still raining though, and since I don't particularly want to ruin this event monitor by getting it soaking wet, I decided to venture back to kindy rather early so I could get a park close by.

So after participating in tidy-up time I sat down to watch the kids enjoy mat time. It's my favourite part of kindy, getting to watch all the kids dancing, singing and listening quietly to stories. So cute. Today however, mat time was a little early so at the end of the story the teachers began asking questions related to the story that had been read (Ants stealing sugar, eating way too much of it).

"We don't eat sugar every day do we?" The teacher said. Most of the kids said No. Baby B however, piped up "I do!". Oh no, now all the parents will find out my habit of bribing the boys with sweets when they aren't behaving. Luckily for me, a number of other children chimed in insisting they too ate lots of sugar. Good, I could smile and laugh like it wasn't true. I hadn't been found out.

"What sorts of things do we eat for dinner?" Oh no. Put your hand down Baby A. No one can know that this weekend while Mummy was sick we had not very nutritional meals. Not when other children were talking about vegetables and meat and rice.

Ahhh thank goodness. So many children wanted to talk that the teacher didn't get to either baby A or B. A lucky escape.

Once we got out of the rain and into the car, I noticed Baby A looked a little sad. I enquired as to what was wrong.

"I just wanted to tell *Teachers name* that I have donut and chips for dinner. Or Nutrigrain." He said sadly. Thank goodness.

"That's okay Baby A, next time." I promised, while hoping that if there were a next time it was after one of my 'well' weekends.

So for now my secret is still safe.

Except now it's on my blog

Ahhhh frick.....

Single Sentence Sunday

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
Walter Winchell

Dilated Cardiomyopathy

So I'm sitting on my bed feeling a little unwell (A little, which is actually quite good) looking at a giant blown up T-Rex which belongs to Baby B, and I realize all his teeth are covered in toothpaste (T-Rex's, not Baby B's). Obviously when I gave the twins their toothbrushes this morning and asked them to bursh their teeth, they took it to mean to brush the dinosaurs teeth. Which is fine, oral hygiene is important. Anyway.

I thought it's time I did another profile on another one of my medical conditions. I think sometimes people don't want to ask, or feel uncomfortable asking, what it is I have. So far I have talked about on of my diagnoses in this post. This is number two. There'll be about five or so in all.

OK, so onto Dilated Cardiomyopathy. This is the condition I was diagnosed with 18 months after the twins were born. I'd been feeling extremely unwell since their birth. I was swollen, was short of breath. I couldn't sleep lying flat because it made me feel as though I was drowning. My heart rate was constantly rapid and irregular. I had lost all my pregnancy weight once I got home from hospital, and proceeded to gain it all back over the next few months, even though I was following a healthy diet and exercise.

The doctors told me it was because I had gained back that weight. It was also suggested I was depressed, and had very little idea of what it actually involved to have twins and therefore my expectations of myself were too high leading to anxiety. It didn't matter that I explained my heart rate was always fast, and got so fast when exercising that I felt as though I would pass out.

So I stopped going to my doctor. I sat at home struggling to do basic things for my children, feeling like a failure as a mother, as a person. I started to think I was crazy, and began to push myself to do all the things I wanted to, despite feeling so unwell.

It was ultimately this which led to my diagnosis. I was doing Tae Bo one morning, and my heart rate went into the 190's. It didn't go back down again. By this point I had serious trust issues with my doctor, and so left it until the next day to make an appointment. At this point, my heart rate had come down. I now had a resting heart rate of 160bpm. Normal is 60-80bpm.

To make a long story short, I was sent to a cardiologist whom conducted an echo and it was discovered I had Dilated Cardiomyopathy. I was also in heart failure.

"Dilated cardiomyopathy is a condition in which the heart becomes weakened and
enlarged, and cannot pump blood efficiently. The decreased heart function
can affect the lungs, liver, and other body systems."

So that also explained the abnormal liver function tests I'd been having.

The function of the heart is looked at by estimating the EF, or Ejection Fraction. A normal healthy person has an EF around 55-75%. My Cardiologist felt in someone my age a normal EF would be 65%. My Ejection Fraction was 30%. My heart was enlarged and I had fluid accumulated in my lungs.

I was put on a very powerful combination of drugs and was able to come home.

This post has turned into more of a personal story then the informative encyclopedia post I intended! I might leave it at this for now and tell part two of this story later.

Health Update

So I had my gynae visit last night. I really like my gynaecologist, he'd be my favourite doctor. Not only did he guide me through infertility and then a really rough pregnancy, but he's kind, has lovely bedside manner, and is quite good looking. In fact, my younger sister now wants to come to all my appointments just to see him. Ahem...

Anyway. So the right sided pain is still present, and a repeat scan (That I don't want to talk about except to give the results) showed the typical polycystic ovary. That may be causing the pain, or I may have enodometriosis. The way to find this out would be another laproscopy (I had one before conceiving the boys which came back clear). Most interestingly though, a rather large mandarin sized cyst was found on my left ovary. I was quite surprised by this as the extreme pain is on the other side, so what the hell? Due to my rather rough few years, and given I'm having some arrythmia issues at the moment, my kind specialist would like to give it four weeks to see if the cyst will resolve on it's own and therefore surgery wouldn't be so urgent.

I'm happy with this. I'd prefer not to be rushed into surgery at this point in time. I guess in four weeks if said cyst is gone, we will then discuss managing the pain and when/if they'll do an investigation to see if I have endo.

So overall a good visit. I feel quite lucky to have two extremely competent as well as very kind specialists (Cardio is the second one). I guess I must have met my quota of horrible doctors!

I'm also currently wearing the event moniter. SO far I think I've only had sinus tachy and some PVC's and PAC's, nothing too exciting. Which is good, but also not great as if I had a good run of SVT then we could figure out effective treatment. Not that I want SVT, just i would like this all figured out! I'd like to be able to exercise without fainting. That'd be nice.

Monitoring Events

I was feeling irritated today. Everytime I moved, when I tried to help the boys get dressed, when I got breakfast, when I myself got dressed my heart was racing. I decided that this is enough. I made a doctors appointment (Well, Craig did. I hate making phone calls) and decided I am going to go down there until something more productive comes of it then "Let's increase your meds!"

Wow. It only took this one appointment! Colour me surprised, since it took 18 months for me to be referred to a Cardiologist when I was in heart failure. And showing all the classic signs.

Tomorrow I get my very own event monitor! I get to wear it for two whole weeks. Then they'll know whether an ablation would be good, different meds, a pacemaker, basically it'll just give a much better idea of what all these arrythmias are and whether/how they can be treated.

I really hate wearing these. Well, I've had two holter monitors in the past, not exactly the same I hope as those are HUGE. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

Eskimos "like eating white people"!?

Ok so this article http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2348856/Kiwi-confectionery-leaves-bad-taste was bought to my attention today by my Mum. I was quite puzzled to hear why it was a lolly which has been around for 54 years, and is quite a big part of kiwi children's childhoods were suddenly creating such a stir.

Whilst I fully understand the shape and name of the lolly has upset the lovely Inuit lady visiting here, and those whom have been sent packets of the lolly, I don't really understand why they would want the lollies banned. I don't mean to be culturally insensitive, I just truely don't understand.

There were a few parts of the article I found to be particularly confusing/amusing. Number One:

'She believed it was also offensive because food shortages had been an issue for
Inuit people in the past. "The notion of cannibalism is a real thing."'

It's a lolly people. It has many purposes, perhaps including being an effective parental bribing tool, decorations for a cake, and something one has at kid's parties. I think it's a long stretch to suggest it's purpose is to encourage cannabilism. Or to indeed suggest it's some kind of tool of mockery directed towards those people in the past that leant towards consuming people.

The second part which caught my interest was;

'A Christchurch academic has also called the sweets offensive saying Inuit
friends in Canada likened the popular sweet to "eating white people".'

Really? Like in the same way eating jelly babies is like eating rainbow coloured people? I'm quite confused by all these references to cannabilism. Why is eating an Eskimo lolly any different to eating jelly babies? Gummy bears (those bears are endangered, bad people eating bear shaped candy), or chocolate shaped easter bunnies for that matter? Perhaps I just can not grasp this issue due to the fact these lollies have been around since I was a kid. Actually, since my Dad was a kid and they have never before caused quite a stir. If we're going to ban Eskimo lollies, why stop there? We better ban all things that look or could be construed to look like something.

Like those carmello Koalas and Kiwis for one.

Single Sentence Sunday

If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. Frank A. Clark