It is said, by whom I have no idea, that life happens while you are making plans.\u00a0 The truth is, and you can quote me on this, one has to do both.\u00a0 So we went to Yakima to have a session with an assistant to the implantation doctor.<\/p>\n
The session was designed for us to review the reasons for having and ICD implanted and to have the nature of the procedure explained to us.\u00a0 As I have been searching the internet for information and showing it to Nancy, and summarizing some for this to report here, we were able to ask questions and understand the answers.\u00a0 There are small pamphlets available at the Heart Center about various heart issues but we find them short of information.\u00a0 From the internet we can get detailed drawings, photos, animations, and video.\u00a0 Only about 18 months ago did we get a high speed connection to the Web and we could not have learned what we have without it.<\/p>\n
So, back to life and plans.\u00a0 Life first.\u00a0 Nancy has developed a sore throat and head cold but these seem unrelated to anything other than being out-and-about. She continues to function doing the things she has, such as music and physical therapy and an increasing number of domestic chores.\u00a0 This approaching week has been scheduled with master thesis defenses for students that Nancy has had in classes.\u00a0 Now retired but as an Emeritus Professor she can (and wants to) participate in these activities.\u00a0 Guess who looks on this situation disapprovingly?\u00a0 The up-side is that she may throw off the sore throat and cold before she goes to the hospital.<\/p>\n
We have managed to squeeze this potential life saving procedure into the very busy schedule on June 1st<\/sup> — twelve days from today.\u00a0 With that date set we can back off from that 5 days and cease taking Coumadin\u00ae so that Nancy won\u2019t bleed overly-much when the implant is done.\u00a0 The dropping level of anti-coagulation will be of concern but can\u2019t be avoided.<\/p>\n There is a nice vein below one\u2019s collarbone within which leads can be threaded into the right atrium.\u00a0 From there the lead will pass through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle.\u00a0 Near the bottom of that chamber where the wall-muscle is close to the left-ventricle, the plastic-coated metal lead will be stuck into the muscle (the myocardium). \u00a0This will be near pathways (bundle branches) for the movement of electrical signals along and through the ventricular walls.<\/p>\n The device can monitor the heart rhythm and sense and record any problems with the coordinated contractions and relaxations.\u00a0 As necessary it can slow the beating if it is too fast (called tachycardia, TAK-ih-KAR-de-ah), speed it up if it is too slow (called bradycardia (bray-de-KAR-de-ah), and convert a fibrillating (quivering) pattern into a regular one.\u00a0 This last situation \u2013 especially ventricular fibrillation, can stop the forward motion of blood through the body and lead to sudden death.\u00a0 See the following for more info:<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.nhlbi.nih.gov\/health\/dci\/Diseases\/scda\/scda_whatis.html<\/a><\/p>\n The implanted device is a sophisticated tiny computer with storage and the information it monitors is available for review.\u00a0 A companion unit can be placed on a bed-side table and then at night the information about your heart will be moved to the bedside, then to a distant computer, analyzed, and searched for anything that suggests a problem.\u00a0 If anything is found then you and your doctor can be alerted and in you go for a LOF.\u00a0 Well not exactly but that is what the dealer said when I called about the car \u2013 Her exact statement was \u201cSo we need to schedule a LOF.\u201d\u00a0 I had to ask. It\u2019s a lub-oil-filter procedure.\u00a0 What the tune-up for an ICD is called, I have no idea.<\/p>\n Next entry is \u201cplanned\u201d for Sunday morning.\u00a0 Enjoy your weekend.\u00a0 Enjoy life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is said, by whom I have no idea, that life happens while you are making plans.\u00a0 The truth is, and you can quote me on this, one has to do both.\u00a0 So we went to Yakima to have a session with an assistant to the implantation doctor. The session was designed for us to … Continue reading “THURSDAY — Making plans . . .”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surgery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-8b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}