Houston, we have a problem.

Before I delve into the nitty gritty of my well being etc , there is a bit more to the story. A piece of this story, I now know was and still is a huge contributor to the highs and lows of the past year.

You see when Holly was a little over 2 weeks old, she seemed very unwell. My mom and I brought her to my doctor. Everything seemed tickity boo, until she checked her heart. I could see in her eyes she was quite worried. She told us to take her to emergency trauma right away as a team would be waiting our arrival.What?!!! I started to feel panicked.

When we got there a trauma team of ten was waiting for us. Ok, now I am VERY concerned. I thank my lucky stars my mom was with me at the time, as I would have lost my marbles had I had been myself.

As my husband arrived, poor Holly had 10 different monitors and cords all attached to her little tiny body, as well as the littlest IV and splint I had ever seen. true moniters showed her heart was beating at 325 beats per minutes. Uhhh, yikes that can’t be right?

I can remember trying to observe the nurses and doctors behaviour because , to me, that would indicate the severity of this situation. They were concerned but still trying to make little jokes and lighten the mood. As I have been in healthcare for some years, I kind of thought if things were very dire, they WOULD not be smiling and making conversation with me?

In fact, I can remember making some silly little jokes. Wait a minute, pretty sure I gave a few high fives? Uhhhh, ok Jen. Weird. But, thinking back, making light of it was a definite coping mechanism.

Sidenote, when her little IV was inserted, the nurse said ” Oh boy, we have a bleeder!” Oh my god, that was NOT what a new mother wanted to hear!! And, after all this time, I will never forget hearing that.

So, to make a long story short. After testing, Holly was diagnosed with SVT …..and was admitted to the NICU unit in KGH. I must say the nursing staff were beyond amazing. Although we were so scared we knew she was in great hands with such caring staff. With Holly’s they used two different meds to try to get her “spiked episodes” under control. But, her little wee heart kept beating irregularly fast.

She needed to be transported to Children’s Hospital in Vancouver to be treated by their children’s cardiologist team.

A special infant trauma transport team, from Vancouver, came to transport Holly and I. I will never ever forgot Bob. He was the head of the trauma transport unit and let me tell you when he came in, everyone ( doctor’s included) listened and followed his every order. He was highly respected, super professional and very compassionate.

He informed us that he was not going to fly with Holly until she was in complete stable condition. Meaning, he wanted to control her spiked episodes. Every bloody time he attempted to get her vitals, her little heart rate would spike. Ughhhh, I remember breaking down a few times ( finally allowing myself to finally feel). And you know what, I was bloody scared.

Once Holly’s heart rate was finally under control, we all loaded into the ambulance to drive to the airport. I always laugh at this next part because for some reason THIS was the worst part for me.

You see, this was THE smallest plane I had ever flown in…and was not the best for a gal who has a wee bit of claustrophobia. Holy confined spaces, Batman! I swear the plane felt like it was the size of a jelly bean. 🤪

So, trying not to think about my head touching the roof of the plane, off we headed to children’s

Holly stayed in the NICU overnight so they could observe her.

After the one night Holly spent another few night in Peds. The Doctors were amazing! We felt like we got the best care for sure. Once her meds were tweaked and she went without an episode a long period of time, we we free to go back home and stay on the meds. We would have check ins when the cardiologists came back to Kelowna.

All in all, as weird as this sounds, I feel so grateful that what Holly went through was this particular condition. Why you may ask?! Well, it is because with SVT, in most cases it often corrects itself over time. And if it does not there is a simple procedure to correct.

Personally, this was a huge sigh of relief. As much as it was a bit traumatic of a situation, I feel so lucky of our outcome because now Holly is a healthy dynamic little girl with such a bright future ahead of her.

I think the biggest eye opener, while our stay at Children’s, was seeing other families with very sick children. I can remember feeling so heart broken for them as I only had a little taste of what they might be going through. It sure made me appreciate and try to live for each day.

So, that is our little journey with Dolly. Seems like a lifetime ago, but as I have learned , it has come back to haunt me in other forms. Awesome. 😑