#heart defect

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[elvensworld]

To all my friends, followers, and those that just happen to come across this post:

I announced a while back that I am pregnant with baby number 2, but things have been everything but smooth sailing. Erik, baby 2, isn’t due till April 19th and has something called truncus arteriosus. What does that mean? He has a major heart defect where his arteries didn’t form properly. Picture below compares a healthy heart vs what Erik has.

So that being said, Erik will need open heart surgery when he is born. The plan is to deliver him and he will be brought to NICU for up to 2 weeks. During those weeks, he will be monitored and prepped for transport to a children’s hospital that can fix his heart. Surgery will happen before the two week mark and then he will spend some time (usually about 6 weeks) in a children’s cardiology icu before going home.

Which brings us down to currently. I am 28.5 weeks along and they need Erik to be born as close to 39 weeks as possible to do the surgery safely. I have been having contractions for an entire week now. I am having to take a medical leave from school till after Erik is born and take it as easy as possible. My partner is the only one working so we are working hard at saving money to care for us while Erik is in the hospital. I will most likely be staying in the city near Erik the whole time while my partner finds a babysitter for our other son. It has been a week.

[meatcrimes]

holy shit why is my heart rate 170bpm? i had half an energy drink about six hours ago and i took my dexedrine 14 hours ago, and all i’ve done for physical activity is go up a flight of stairs a few minutes ago. i’m not out of breath or feeling faint. what is even going on

[pengumi12]

Congenital Heart Defect Awareness

[midnightbutterfly13]

Reminder to my single ventricle self!✨️🫀

Stop 👏 trying 👏to👏 keep 👏up 👏with the👏 multi-ventricle👏 people! 👏👏

For my irl friends, don't worry, I'm ok.

[rosetyler42]

As a baby (about 6 months old, coincidentally!), I was kept sedated/unconcious for a while due to issues closing my chest up after emergency heart surgery for congestive heart failure. Basically, I had swollen up so much, they couldn't close my chest and had to drain me for a bit. Mom said I looked alot older than I was. I'm not sure how long I was out, but it was long enough I had bedsores I needed to have surgically removed/debreeded, and long enough I had to relearn some milestones afterwards. I also ended up septic and jaundiced due to having my chest open for so long.

And yes, I do have trauma from all this. I have a fear of sedation, I've had sleep anxiety a good chunk of my life, a fear of surgery, and oral and down south aversion. However, as I don't consciously REMEMBER any of it (being a baby at the time) I don't know if I have PTSD OR if I had ICU delirium. I probably have CPTSD if anything since my medical history is pretty long and traumatic and it happened when I was young.

Long-Term Sedation of a Character

Tess on Patreon asked:

Is there a sedative which can be given for an extended period of time with minimal side effects? My MC is kept sedated in a laboratory for around 5 years (though not necessarily sedated the whole time) I was first thinking ketamine, but I saw in your ketamine tag that in long-term use, it can cause bladder and kidney failure, and I would prefer that not to happen. 

Money is no object to the people keeping MC, and they are all (or at least mostly) medically trained. 

 If there isn’t a way to keep him mostly sedated for the majority of the five years, how long/often would you think MC could be sedated realistically?

Hi Tess! Thanks so much for supporting the blog! 

There are a few things to consider when sedating a character over the long term, and I don’t know that “completely unconscious x 5 years” is a reasonable or realistic accomplishment (even intermittently). There are a few reasons why… 

1) Humans get tolerant. 

Long-term sedation with something like benzodiazepines (Valium, Ativan, Versed, etc.) isn’t going to work. Humans become tolerant to meds like that over the longer term, requiring higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect. (I have seen grown men take horse-levels of IV midazolam and still be awake and cogent.) 

This can take weeks to months, and the character would require frequent med changes and escalating doses to maintain the sedation. 

Similarly, the same is true with opiates such as fentanyl (which is a component in many forms of sedation; it’s a pain med with sedative properties). 

2) Livers and kidneys aren’t so tolerant 

You alluded to this when you mentioned ketamine, but the truth is, meds like these have implications over the longer term, and the longer something is given, the more likely it is that something awful will happen to your character’s body because of prolonged use of a particular medication. The bladder and kidney dysfunction with ketamine is just one example; propofol has PRIS (propofol-related infusion syndrome), where the body essentially winds up breaking down muscle (rhabdomyolysis) and, I believe, malignant hyperthermia, where it just… cranks the thermostat. PRIS is often lethal. 

So how long can this long-term sedation be accomplished, and what would be the best strategies for keeping a character under? 

Warning: this answer is a WAGITD (a Wild-Ass Guess in the Dark), but I’ll put it somewhere around the 6-18 month mark. By changing sedatives every few days – especially by changing class of sedatives every few days – they can keep the character’s body from becoming too resistant, and make sure that they can keep the character safe and well. 

Of course, there are going to be effects. Muscle atrophy is a Big Deal™ , plus, brains REALLY don’t like being sedated over the long term. ICU delirium is possible when someone is in the ICU (and is strongly associated with heavy sedation) for a few days, much less a few years. They may be completely out of it and suffer massive PTSD from their experience, not to mention absolutely horrifying. 

[This article has some really crazy experiences talking about ICU delirium and is downright terrifying.] 

I hope this helps! 

xoxo, Aunt Scripty

[disclaimer] 

[biology-geology-beaches-india]

The Research Journals of Satyendra Sunkavally, page 40.

[allkindsofadvocacy]

Find Me Friday: Wally & Fletcher!

Logo that says Reece’s Rainbow Special Needs Adoption Support in blue, below a blue & yellow paint stroke rainbow graphic with a yellow Ukrainian trident symbol on the right half. In this series, each Friday I’m able, I want to share a different child or group of children who are available for adoption and listed through the adoption advocacy website Reece’s Rainbow. Please note, names used on…

[ronanpearl]

God knew I'd be to powerful with a fully functioning cardiovascular system so I got nerfed

[pangur-and-grim]

Belphie was having a weird issue that freaked me out, so I took him in, and they said he could be in early stage heart failure. he’s going to stay while they do an echocardiogram, and then they’ll let me know.

[elvensworld]

Okay…. I don’t usually do these types of things, but for once I am… I seriously need some help with everything going on.

As some of you know, my son was born March 28th and was not breathing. He was immediately rushed to NICU where he was put on a cpap and given medications to keep a ductal development open to save his life. We knew that he had a heart condition before he was born which allowed doctors to act quickly.

To explain what is wrong with his heart…. He has dextrocardia, congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries, pulmonary atresia, and VSD. To break all that down. His heart is on the right side of his chest, his heart is mirrored, he is missing the part of his pulmonary artery that connects to his heart (there was a ductal development that kept blood flow from the pulmonary to the aorta which was connected to the heart right at the VSD) and a hole between the bottom two chambers of his heart (VSD). Ductal developments are normal in babies. It is a small vessel that connects the pulmonary artery to the aorta while in the womb which provides blood flow to the lungs. Within 48 hours of birth, this ductal development will shrink till it no longer exists.

At 3 days old, we transferred from the birth hospital to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where he went to cardiac ICU. Doctors were pretty sure they could place a stint in the ductal development to keep it open and get him home pretty quickly. At less than a week old, he went in for the stint where they discovered that the tissue of the ductal development was also in his pulmonary artery. This meant that he had to have open heart surgery to repair the pulmonary artery and place a shunt to allow blood flow into his lungs. His surgery was April 5th when he was only 8 days old and went well.

The recovery from surgery was going to tell us everything we needed to know about his future surgery and what to expect. Thankfully this wasn’t as bad as it could be. He did recover a lot slower than we expected. Because of that, we have not moved to acute care yet and are still in the cardiac ICU. I have spent most days here with Erik while my husband is at home with our toddler. The reason for this is we can’t afford for me to drive back and forth. It’s 100 miles round trip which is rough, especially with gas prices being $3.49 or higher. On top of that, I am having to get food 3x a day, plus pay for parking and breastmilk bags because I am not allowed to breast feed him yet. I am having to pick up new clothes for him because he is so small he is wearing preemie clothing. I am staying at the Ronald McDonald House and they ask for $20 a day if we can and covering one meal a day. My toddler had to start daycare so my husband can work. We really are in need of some help. Every little bit helps and if you can’t, can you please at least share this to help get the word out. Maybe someone can help us in some way.

Other ways to help are:

Cashapp: $Cosmichairdesigns

Venmo: @cosmichairdesigns

Paypal: kalis.iacon00@gmail.com

To everyone who can share or help, thank you so much. You are appreciated more than I can express in words.

[robertehicks]

Recognizing Signs of Heart Disease: Insights from Patna’s Top Heart Hospital

An unnaturally fast or irregular heartbeat may indicate dangerous arrhythmias. With specialists who can diagnose and treat a wide range of cardiac rhythm abnormalities, Mediversal, the best hospital in Patna can offer you a professional diagnosis for unusual heartbeat treatment.

Heart Disease is significantly increased by hypertension, a silent killer. You can efficiently control your blood pressure with routine examinations and surveillance at the “hospital near me emergency” services.

Check our recent post: https://mynewsfit.com/signs-of-heart-disease-insights-from-patnas-top-heart-hospital/

[leodiagnostics]

Stress Tests (TMT) How Important Are They for Evaluating Cardiac Function

What Are Stress Tests?

Stress tests, also known as exercise stress tests or cardiac stress tests, are medical procedures that involve monitoring the body’s response to physical stress, usually in the form of exercise, in order to assess the health and functionality of the cardiovascular system, especially the heart. 

These tests are commonly used to diagnose and evaluate various heart conditions and to determine how well the heart can handle increased demands during physical activity. There are different types of stress tests, but they all aim to evaluate the heart’s response to stress in various ways. Here are the main types:

Treadmill Exercise Stress Test (TMT): This is the most common type of stress test. During a TMT, the patient walks or runs on a treadmill while their heart rate, blood pressure, and electrocardiogram (ECG) are continuously monitored. 

The test begins at a relatively easy pace and gradually increases in speed and incline. The goal is to elevate the heart rate and monitor for any symptoms or changes in the ECG that could indicate heart problems. stress test cost in Pune

Nuclear Stress Test (Myocardial Perfusion Imaging): In this test, a small amount of radioactive material is injected into the bloodstream. The patient then undergoes a stress test, usually on a treadmill, while a special camera takes images of the heart. 

The radioactive material highlights areas of the heart that are receiving less blood flow, helping to identify regions with reduced blood supply, possibly due to blocked or narrowed arteries. stress test cost in Pune

Stress Echocardiogram: This test combines an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) with exercise stress. Before and after exercise, ultrasound images of the heart are taken to assess its structure and function, as well as any changes in blood flow during exercise.

Pharmacological Stress Test: Sometimes, a patient may not be able to exercise due to physical limitations. In such cases, medications that mimic the effects of exercise on the heart are administered to simulate stress. stress test cost in Pune

These medications dilate the coronary arteries and increase the heart rate, similar to what happens during physical activity. Nuclear stress tests and stress echocardiograms can also be performed with pharmacological stress.

Stress tests are valuable tools in diagnosing and evaluating a range of cardiovascular conditions, including coronary artery disease, heart rhythm abnormalities, and heart valve disorders. 

The tests can help healthcare professionals determine the presence of reduced blood flow to the heart muscles, detect abnormal heart rhythms, assess exercise tolerance, and evaluate the overall performance of the heart under stress. stress test cost in Pune

Treadmill Stress Tests, also known as Treadmill Exercise Tests (TMT) or Exercise Stress Tests, are important tools in evaluating cardiac function and assessing the overall health of the cardiovascular system. 

These tests involve having the patient perform physical exercise, usually by walking or running on a treadmill, while their heart activity is monitored through electrocardiography (ECG) and blood pressure measurements. Here are some key reasons why TMTs are important for evaluating cardiac function:

Detection of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD): TMTs are commonly used to assess the presence of coronary artery disease, which is characterized by reduced blood flow to the heart muscles due to narrowed or blocked coronary arteries. 

During exercise, the heart requires more oxygen and nutrients, and if the coronary arteries are narrowed, it can lead to symptoms like chest pain (angina) or abnormal changes in the ECG, indicating reduced blood flow to the heart muscle. stress test cost in Pune

Assessment of Exercise Tolerance: TMTs can evaluate a person’s exercise capacity and tolerance. The point at which a person experiences symptoms (such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or fatigue) during the test can provide insights into their cardiovascular health and fitness level.

Monitoring Cardiac Rhythm: TMTs allow continuous monitoring of the heart’s rhythm during exercise. Abnormalities in the heart’s electrical activity, such as arrhythmias, can be detected more easily when the heart is under stress. stress test cost in Pune

Evaluation of Blood Pressure Response: Blood pressure response to exercise is an important indicator of cardiovascular health. Abnormal changes in blood pressure during or after exercise can provide valuable information about a person’s risk of cardiovascular events.

Assessment of Medication Effects: TMTs can help evaluate the effectiveness of medications in managing cardiac conditions. Changes in exercise tolerance, heart rate, blood pressure, and ECG patterns can indicate whether medications are helping improve cardiac function. stress test cost in Pune

Risk Stratification: TMT results can help classify patients into different risk categories based on their exercise performance and any abnormal ECG changes. This information aids in determining the need for further diagnostic tests or interventions.

Post-Intervention Evaluation: TMTs can be used to assess the success of interventions such as coronary artery stenting or bypass surgery. They can help determine whether blood flow to the heart has improved after such procedures. stress test cost in Pune

Monitoring Progress Over Time: TMTs can be performed at different time points to monitor changes in cardiac function over time. This is particularly useful for individuals with known cardiac conditions or those undergoing rehabilitation. stress test cost in Pune

However, it’s important to note that while TMTs provide valuable information, they have limitations. They might not always detect subtle or early stages of coronary artery disease, and false-positive or false-negative results are possible. 

Therefore, TMTs are often used in conjunction with other tests, such as imaging studies (e.g., stress echocardiography, nuclear stress tests), to provide a more comprehensive assessment of cardiac function.

As with any medical test, the interpretation of TMT results requires expertise from a qualified healthcare professional, and decisions about further testing or treatment should be based on a combination of clinical judgment, patient history, and the overall clinical context.

stress test cost in Pune

[katiegreet]

Me 14 years old, summer of 1994 in Denmark

[drpedi07]

Atrial Septic Defect

A birth defect that causes a hole in the wall between the hearts upper chambers (atria).

[lotus-pear]

mourning black and the death of ideals