God's Faithfulness

So last Friday Erik and I went back to the cardiologist for an echo and to talk about the results of my heart monitor. Apparently when I wore the monitor for 24 hours my heart skipped 25000 beats, so an average of 15 beats per minute, which is I guess quite a lot. But my doctor said he did a lot of research and consulted with his colleagues and decided, based on my test results, that he didn't really think I had a peripartum cardiomyopathy after all. Since I had an irregular heartbeat before I ever got pregnant with Sophie (although we're not sure how severe it was then) and since I didn't have any strong symptoms of heart failure after having Sophie, he thinks it was not the cardiomyopathy that occurred (although we can't prove that). So based on that, and the fact that my echo didn't show any negative changes, he seemed much more positive about future pregnancies. He did say that pregnancy would still carry more risks than for someone with a perfectly normal heart, and that my skipped beats and shortness of breath would probably increase during pregnancy, but he didn't seem as concerned about a recurring cardiomyopathy. We still have some risk factors to look into, but for now I'm not on any meds and he just said diet, exercise, and no caffeine (!?!?) would be the best treatment and prevention. He said that some doctors believe frequent skipped beats can either be a sign or a cause of future weakening of the heart, but others don't think that's the case. So it's kind of a wait and see with that. But overall it was great news! So we'll go back in December just to check in, unless I'm pregnant before then, in which case I will have frequent appointments to monitor my heart.

Thank you all for your prayers for our family. We still don't know exactly what God has in store for us, but we have learned a lot through this process. I know I've been forced to rely on Him more - to trust that He is truly sovereign and to wait patiently on Him, which Erik can tell you is definitely not a strength of mine :). But He truly is faithful and completely trustworthy, and no matter what the outcome of this situation, we know He knows what is best and what will bring Him the most glory. And that's all we can ask!