The cardiologist’s staffer called this morning to tell me my
bi-annual checkup was due.
A little over five years ago I face planted, twice in an
hour, and ended up in the Emergency Room. A few days later I went home with a
pacemaker. It was my first, and only, time spending nights in a hospital. Not
just the hospital, Intensive Care.
Seems I developed a condition called bradycardio, where my
heart beat gets too slow to keep the brain properly supplied with blood.
Blessedly, technology lets the cardiologist check out the
pacemaker without seeing me personally. The appliance in the picture, via a
smart phone, reads the pacemaker memory and sends it over the internet. Usually
they call back in one to two days and discuss the results of the test. I still
get a hefty bill, but stay out of their office.
The face plant led to a nose repair. I was in and out in a
morning.
The pacemaker had a partial failure and had to be redone.
Again, I was in and out in a morning.
Seems my lung capacity/chest expansion
was far greater than the doctor had ever seen and I needed longer leads from
the heart to the pacemaker. Yeah, I’m a freak.
I rarely notice having a pacemaker. Per the cardiologist, it
is rarely active, maybe once a month for two to three minutes, but those
minutes are crucial.
Between the pacemaker and my CPAP (been on one since 1995)
modern medicine keeps me alive.
Trying to do my part I try to walk one mile twice a day with
the dog. My cardio rower isn’t for hanging clothes. I’ve had it, and used it
daily, for a number of years.
12 comments:
I didn't know that. Added to the prayer list and good luck with the fishing license, but don't get too fast and furious! Or do. Gentle exercise is probably a good thing?
I still think that that is the best picture I have ever taken of you. Glad that the doctor convinced you that you need the pacemaker. Oh yeah, there was also that Code Blue incident (you revived before they had to go through with it). I still need my Brudder around to harass & scrap with.
LSP
Thank you.
Sisty
There were some exciting moments that day. I've looked worse than that picture after some of the fusses I've been in, but never had the bridge of my nose above my eyebrow.
WSF, I didn't know that you were a cyborg of sorts with all of that expensive equipment. Good to know.
Stay healthy, active, and keep annoying the coven.
LL
My hope is the parts weren't made in China. Wouldn't [ut it past them that they built in an off switch that responds to satellite signals.
Always the paranoid response. The Chinese don't know you well enough to get rid of you. The American Govt., maybe. There is that FBI file.
Always the supportive comment.
Well if the Chinese made all the pacemakers and defibrillators they could drop 2,300,000 at the push of a button. Wonder how long it would take the powers to be to figure out that all deaths had one feature and that everyone was murdered. And how to prove it and what would be the outcome. Sounds like the plot for a book. Stay well.
Super man! One of my BIL's has a pacemaker. Watching him phone in his data was an interesting experience. Modern medicine!
Between diabetic reactions, and a stint, the cowman was notorious for pulling out leads and IV's and walking out of the hospital. Can't tell you how many times I got a call from the hospital, that he had checked himself out and to come get him...
Brig
I'm stubborn. Getting a CPAP was a blog subject, "Sleep Apnea" Thursday, August 18, 2011.
It took the EMTs several minutes to convince me to get in the ambulance.
squeek's mom
Some of the readers are gifted writers. Maybe a novel based on the Chinese having put a kill switch in nearly everything they have ever sent us just might not be fiction.
Glad you're still around! And Banner needs you for the rest of his life too!
OldNFO
Thank you. The dog and I are good for each other.
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