Stinkin Arrhythmia

We can't kick this Arrhythmia. The rhythm specialist was called in again tonight, she upped his drugs and tried to pace him out of it a couple times. She succeeded 3 times, but he kept going right back into it. They have been talking about a new drug- Amiodarone, it is the more powerful out of all the anti-arrhythmic drugs. The reason they don't use it first is because it has a couple bad side effects and they don't want people to be on it that long.  Since they couldn't pace him out of the flutter while he was on the sotalol and digoxin, they started him on the Amiodarone. They waited for about an hour to let it get into his system and then tried pacing him again. That didn't work at all, he is just stuck in this irregular rhythm. They did manage to slow his heart rate down a bit, but now it is very irregular and all over the place.  She is going to let it get into his system through out the night and then try to pace him again in the morning. If that doesn't work, they are going to try to cardiovert him, basically shock him to reset his heart, similar to a defibrillator...which is pretty terrifying to think about. They said it takes 7-10 days before you see the full benefit of the new drug, so if they can't get him out of this rhythm we will be here for another couple weeks.

Our little guy is back on the CPAP machine, I call it the rhino machine... I strongly dislike it, but it does make it easier for him to breathe. We are both emotionally drained, this is a ride of ups and downs and unexpected turns. I am exhausted and can't even comprehend how I feel about the whole thing. It is fairly frustrating, and not easy to accept. We are really hoping tomorrow will bring better news. They may be able to pace him out of it in the morning, and the new meds might be able to keep it at bay. We have good doctors and nurses, we just need to have faith that they will be able to pull him out of it tomorrow.