The Tricks

Let's start with the "tricks" of October 31st. I will share more later about the kids' first Trick or Treating experience complete with pictures. They had a blast running through the neighborhood for over an hour last night with a big group of friends. However, while I have a few moments I will at least fill you in on the post happenings of the evening. As I just said, the kids were running/walking for a good amount of time last night and after we arrived home, examined their load of candy and started to get them ready for bed Samuel told us that his heart was "beeping" fast. He had not been doing anything for at least a half hour and yet his heart rate was almost impossible to count with our best guess and count being 240/bpm. We are not sure how long his heart might have been beating that way prior to his telling us but it was not slowing down. We called the pediatrician and he told us to take him in to the ER. So about 8:50pm last night we headed off to the hospital. Samuel said it was still beating fast on the way to the hospital but then it had slowed down when we arrived. Thankfully! He never had labored breathing or pain as far as we could get him to tell us. But, obviously the whole episode was quite concerning for us as our known time of a high heart rate exceeded 45 minutes. They did the whole work up of monitoring, chest and heart x-rays, and EKG and did not find anything. Jonathan had a similiar experience in high school after a soccer game where his heart was beating the same way for over an hour. Apparently, there is a family history of heart arrythmia. So now we will have to schedule a follow-up visit with his doctor this week and see where this trail of events will lead us. Samuel is the best little patient ever though. He is so kind and sweet to all the doctors and nurses and so fascinated with all the medical equipment. When the doctor asked for Samuel's version of the story he said: "I was running for Halloween and then my heart starting beeping very fast so my Mamma and Dadda brought me to your hospital." Doctor: "Why did they take you to the hospital?" Samuel: "Because they're very friendly." Did he mean his parents are friendly or the hospital? It made us smile. So our Halloween adventures ended last night as we arrived home close to midnight. Samuel is quite perky this morning and is fine by all normal standards of measuring. We'll keep you posted if there is anything more to share. Stay tuned for pictures and the "Treats" portion of the day...