Jennifer Brola

What a crazy week of ups and downs.  I've had good energy days and non-energy days, received happy emails, and seen sad news headlines.  In particular, it seems like a bad couple of weeks in Hollywood - Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays...all passed away.  Michael Jackson's death seems to have especially captivated America.  I mean, have you turned on iTunes lately? Turning on the radio isn't much better...

I'm glad that I've been getting happy tidbits to offset the sad ones. In particular, I got an email from a dear friend.  She's officially married, and she sent me a link to her wedding video!  Congratulations!  The big day was last month, and it looks incredibly beautiful.  Even if you didn't know her, it's definitely worth watching.  And if you're curious about the "wedding within a wedding" going on, I imagine it has to do with her being Vietnamese.  :)

 
Watch the video - it's so beautiful!

As instructed, I got my Metoprolol up to 50mg...for a day.  At that dosage my pulse rate finally fell into a normal range, but I was so sluggish that I felt faint (which made me feel barfy).  I guess my tolerance for normality just wasn't there yet.  The cardiologist was bummed, but he agreed to support a reversal back to 37.5mg if I didn't mind splitting pills.  My pulse is still a little high, but I can manage to get through the day with that for now.  I'm sure it's going to be trial-and-error the whole way because my weight is constantly changing.

While I was an extended-release zombie, I had my appointment to be strapped into an 24-hour holter monitor.  Pretty easy stuff, although I feel sorry for the guys who do it.  After the technician attaches the sensors, she puts huge 2"x4" sheets of medical tape over each one.  Needless to say, ripping all that off the next day is quite uncomfortable; the pink rectangles faded after about five hours, but I still have gunky tape outlines everywhere.  Although I don't expect any revelations, hopefully the results are fine (as with the echo) when they come back.

Which gets us to today's activity: the first in a series of growth ultrasounds.  I'm not sure if we would be doing these normally, but beta-blockers have a tendency to slow down fetal growth.  According to the perinatologist, small babies do catch up, but low birth weight can lead to other challenges.  At this point, we don't have to worry.  The preliminary results were that he's 3lbs. and 11oz., so he's actually about the size of a 32-week baby (at 30-weeks).  His heart rate was 148bpm, which is also good, and he's already found the exit.  I wonder if they'll move up my due date?