Reprograming the Electronics

Since I'm sure everyone is highly interested in what life is like with a pacemaker, here's the next installment. This week I had an appointment to get the little electronic piece of equipment reprogrammed. This is necessary to optimized the battery life and therefore my life.

It turns out that even though I am 100% dependent on this thing to cause my heart to beat, it doesn't take a very big kick to get it to move. Therefore the power behind the kick could be turned very low and still do the job, which will probably add a couple of years to my battery life. The other interesting thing is that the pacemaker is capable of adjusting heart rate based on body movement and hormones emitted, but it seems that my heart does not need that function at present so it is not turned on.

Previously I told you that I could call the doctor and hold the phone up to my pacemaker and the doctor could read the battery life, etc. right over the phone. That was based on what the nurse had told me rather than directly from the doctor. Yes, it is true for many pacemakers where the reason for them is too fast a heart beat. In my case it was too slow and that particular feature has not yet been implemented in this style although it is due out this year sometime.

My pacemaker stores information about my heart rate. so when I was seeing the doctor he looked at the readout and said "I see your heart was beating a little fast on Dec. 2 (your dad though he said Dec. 22, oh well whichever) but that was the only time since you've gotten this. Your numbers are perfect" It seems nothing is hidden anymore. No, I don't know what I was doing on that date.

So far I am feeling fine so don't spend even a moment worrying about how I am doing.

I'm Battery Operated

I've been in the hospital. I now have a pacemaker inserted in my heart. For about three days before Thanksgiving every time I stood up I would get really light headed. Even so I managed to help distribute the turkey dinners for the needy in the ward, wrap my kids gifts, and fix dinner for Thanksgiving. Tim did offer to bring me a stool to do all the work while sitting, but I said I would rather have help, so he peeled 4 potatoes. Amber helped whip them and made the stuffing and set the table, etc.

After dinner I could hardly walk to the bathroom without holding onto the wall. I felt like this lifestyle was just not going to work out for me so asked Tim to take me to Kahuku Hospital to see what the trouble was.

My pulse was 34 although blood pressure and everything else was OK they transferred me by ambulance to Castle. (They told your dad he couldn't drive me because the top and bottom halves of my heart were firing irregularly. It was a complete electrical blockage (not a heart attack or stroke. They told daddy if they both happened to fire at the same time it would be very bad)

At Castle it didn't take long to determine that I needed a Pacemaker put in my heart. They put in a temporary one very soon. A wire was threaded through the vein in my neck down to my heart and electrical pulses were applied with plans to put in a permanent one on Saturday. Unfortunately the temporary one wasn't so good so it often stopped catching and by Saturday after it had stopped about 6 times and so my diaphragm had started trying top create a pulse making me look like a serious hiccup case they zipped me into surgery for the internal pacemaker.

A small incision mas made in my left upper chest and the pacemaker inserted. Only local anesthesia is used. I will wear a sling for two or three days so that I don't move my left arm too soon and dislodge the thing and die on the spot. "Yes, I am 99% dependent on this little pacemaker in order to stay alive."If I need to talk to a doctor I can just call in, hold the receiver to my chest at the equipment site and it will transmit directly to him the battery life and status of my pacemaker and situation.

I should be able to go home tomorrow and as long as I keep my energizer bunny current I can just keep going, and going, and going, through the millennium I suppose.

l