Nancy is slowly being transformed into a bionic woman. Some years ago she had intraocular lenses inserted to replace the natural lenses of her eyes. Now she has a porcine valve in her heart and, using her own donated tissue, some new plumbing for her blood.
Today the team decided she need no longer have the external pacemaker that has been with her for some time. It has been turned off for a couple of days and she wasn’t needing it for a time before that. So the wires were clipped and the ends leading into her heart were given a few gentle tugs. One came out very nicely. The other one seemed more securely anchored and so it got to stay. It was stretched out ever so gently, clipped off, and allowed to retreat beneath the skin. Truly, a spare part.
Otherwise, for Nancy, this was an uneventful day. We are again talking about (but not having) a timeline for leaving the ICU and going to a skilled care facility. A comment was made today that “there is light at the end of the tunnel.” True, but it has turned out to be a very long tunnel.