The Scholtens: October 15, 2011

I thought I would start out this blog with a smiley picture of Peter . . . he is such a happy little guy . . . and patient and quiet and well, just perfect . . . we found out just how perfect our little man is on Wednesday morning when we had an emergency 3 am visit from the ambulance. Brad passed out and stopped breathing. He hit the sink on the way down and banged up his head and neck, causing a concussion. Several hours in the emergency room later (where Peter hardly made a peep . . . he ate, slept, had a couple of diaper changes and charmed all the medical staff that came in to check on Daddy) . . . after a CAT scan, EKG, and thousands (according to Brad) of blood tests it was determined that Brad's heart was in a fib (atrial fibrillation - which basically means his heart was racing and irregular - the cardiologist explained that his internal pacemaker wasn't working) and he had a pretty severe "head bonk." Right about the time of diagnosis, Kurt & Whitney arrived to take Peter home. Brad was admitted to the telemetry (cardiac) floor of the hospital. Aunt Whitney (Uncle Kurt, too)was able to take care of Peter all day until Grandma & Grandpa arrived to spend the night so I could stay at the hospital with Brad . . . normally, the treatment for a fib is blood thinners (but due to the head bonk, he could not have)after several more tests, it was determined that they would try a non-blood thinning medication to get Brad's heart back in rhythm. Thankfully, after about 6 hours, the medication worked and his heart went back into sinus rhythm. Had the medication not worked, he would have had to have his heart shocked back into rhythm (and yes, that works just like you see it on tv - he would have been anesthetized though). So, we are very happy that the meds worked. He has to visit the cardiologist regularly, but hopefully the daily meds prescribed will keep this from happening again.

Now, back to the cutey . . .