{"id":534,"date":"2010-06-05T22:00:20","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/hultquist\/?p=534"},"modified":"2010-06-05T22:00:20","modified_gmt":"2010-06-06T05:00:20","slug":"saturday-one-of-a-thousand-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=534","title":{"rendered":"SATURDAY — one of a thousand stories*"},"content":{"rendered":"

* “Refers to the TV series ‘Dragnet’, where Jack Webb played Sergeant Joe Friday (Badge No. 714).” Each story began \u201cMy name is Joe Friday, I\u2019m a cop — Yeah, there are a thousand stories in the naked city and this is just one of them<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nancy\u2019s Impressions of the Defibrillator Implant Day, June 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

John has commissioned me to write my impressions of the recent procedure to implant the defibrillator, because he has no idea what to put on the blog.\u00a0 I will try with apologies to the few friends I have already bombarded with emails or phone calls after the procedure.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid this will be longer than John usually likes to print on the blog, but it contains my feelings of the experience, and that\u2019s what he wanted to report.<\/p>\n

June 1st<\/sup> actually started\u00a0 at midnight without being able to have anything but water except to take my pills in the morning, before taking off for an 8:30 a.m. entry to ER (what they had set up).\u00a0 Knowing I would not be allowed to drive myself home, and worried about John spending so much time away from the Brittany mom and a few-days-old puppies, I asked R to drive down with me, get me settled and to drive my car back home and then come back for me the next afternoon to transport me home.\u00a0 We took off from her house about 7:20 a.m. and had nothing out of the ordinary happen till we got to the 16th<\/sup> street exit.\u00a0 Coming off the freeway ramp, I stopped and looked to the left (used to be a stop sign there, but now is a yield and the traffic to the left has to stop).\u00a0 A guy behind me went into road rage and honked loudly and crowded me.\u00a0 We got through that, and were coming down 16th<\/sup> Avenue in Yakima headed for Tieton Drive and the hospital, Yakima Memorial.\u00a0 There was an accident we managed to drive around.\u00a0 Had we been in the opposite lane headed north, we would not have made it through in a timely fashion.\u00a0 Turns out I found out in the operating room that the X-ray technician\u2019s wife was the car hit in the accident, by a woman who pulled out and didn\u2019t see her, smashing into the front of the car.\u00a0 The husband was not too far away, so got there to take their daughter from the back seat carrier and take her to day care.\u00a0 He also checked to see that his wife was all right.<\/p>\n

We got to the hospital and found a parking space close to the entrance.\u00a0 Made our way to the ER (not ambulance) entrance and were promptly told to go to the person two spots to the right, that I really wasn\u2019t being admitted to ER.\u00a0 They had my name and were expecting me for the procedure.\u00a0 Then we were ushered to a small room and computer operator, to the right of there.\u00a0 R came in with me.\u00a0 The \u201coperator\u201d could not get her computer to boot to find me in the system and start the paperwork.\u00a0\u00a0 After giving my medical insurance cards, I asked if I could find a restroom close by, while they got the computer going.\u00a0 Yes, directions were given, and I took off without any of my stuff, to the restroom, around the counter.\u00a0 I walked by a \u201ccop\u201d who stopped me and wanted to know where I was going.\u00a0 I said, \u201cTo the restroom there, please.\u201d\u00a0 He okayed my going but told me to check back in with him when done.\u00a0 So, I did, and walked back to the \u201ccomputer entry room.\u201d\u00a0 I think by then a woman from the room behind had come out and \u201cfixed\u201d this computer.<\/p>\n

It still took awhile, but they said I would be carried (in a wheel chair) directly to the Catheterization Lab.\u00a0 R went along with me to a little room where I dumped all my stuff on a table, hugged her good bye, thanked her, and she wished me the best.\u00a0\u00a0 I was introduced to Anne, my nurse for the next hour or so for a huge list of questions about my past medical history and my medications.\u00a0 First, I had to strip and put on a night gown and sock slippers.\u00a0 Packed all my stuff in a bag they gave me.\u00a0 As she was questioning me, she put heated blankets on me and kept pulling them over my arms if I became uncovered.\u00a0 That was toasty, as the room was cold (but not as cold as the operating room would turn out to be, and where I was no longer pampered with a heated blanket or anything soft.)<\/p>\n

Questions–all about my medications, which I had been told to take with me, but that was erroneous information.\u00a0\u00a0 They had to issue the pills from the hospital pharmacy and I could not take anything I was told to bring along.\u00a0\u00a0 There was nothing to be taken until later in the day after the procedure.\u00a0 So, she went through the list of my medications (which she had in the records), asking me what time I last took each one.\u00a0 The names were not always the same; I had to recognize that Lasix in my case was Bumex, or Bumatanide.\u00a0\u00a0 That interrogation lasted awhile, and while she was doing it, an assistant from the Blood Lab tried to install an IV in my left arm.\u00a0 She failed and created a hematoma on the crease in my elbow.\u00a0 Just as well, because I hate having IVs there.\u00a0 I had to warn them not to flush with Heparin because of my previous severe reaction to it, and it would kill me.\u00a0 Finally after several painful pokes, she left and they sought another person to insert an IV.\u00a0 I was beginning to be concerned, but happily the second lady found a place on my hand to set it up and it remained that way till removed the next day when I was to check out.\u00a0 As far as I know it was never used, except during the surgery.\u00a0 The last thing to be done in this session was for Anne to set up a VCR 20-minute story about what to expect in the procedure I was about to have and the recovery period and restrictions afterward.\u00a0 My blood pressure and heart rate were taken.\u00a0 I watched the movie and then was resting waiting for the time to come to be taken across the hall.<\/p>\n

I had left the entrance area at 8:30 on the dot, and my procedure was scheduled for 10:30.\u00a0 There were still questions from the manufacturer\u2019s representative, E, of my defibrillator, in my room after 10:30.\u00a0 He asked me if I knew the name of it.\u00a0 I told him Biotronik, a defibrillator with a pacemaker included, but I didn\u2019t remember the model number.\u00a0 One would think they would have had that information.\u00a0 He went away and came back again asking me if I already had a pacemaker implanted.\u00a0 I told him I did not but had had one back in December, but it was only in temporarily and removed before my valve replacement.\u00a0\u00a0 He said, \u201cOh, that makes sense now.\u00a0 The paperwork said you had a pacemaker.\u201d\u00a0 I began to be annoyed that he had bad information, and he said it was apparently a clerical error.\u00a0 Those are not good, and it didn\u2019t make me feel comfortable.\u00a0 He said all was well now and they were on the right track.\u00a0 Well, hello!\u00a0 Not much longer and they would walk me into the operating room.\u00a0 I asked if I could go potty first so had a long walk to the restroom with the aid of a nurse, but when I was done, she was not around, so I walked back to the door of the operating room.<\/p>\n

They ushered me in and gave me a stool to boost myself up on a table, very thin, the size and shape of an ironing board, without any padding whatsoever.\u00a0 It was too narrow to put my arms beside my body.\u00a0 So they got some extensions and put them in for my arms.\u00a0 COLD.–everything was very cold.\u00a0 I needed a pillow under my head, which nurse Judy provided, but mentioned it would not be able to stay there through the entire procedure.\u00a0 Then they started putting various patches and things on me.\u00a0 The coldest was a bright shiny metal looking thing but they claimed it was not metal, on my right leg attached above my knee.\u00a0 I asked what it was for and they said it was a ground.\u00a0 Hmmmm\u2026 interesting.\u00a0 They needed me to turn my head to the right but were covering me up with a drape so I wouldn\u2019t be able to see the doctor nor the monitors, which I was watching my blood pressure and heart beat and pattern on, prior to being blocked.\u00a0 I was not under sedation except for pain, so they could talk to me and I could talk to them through the procedure.\u00a0 I was not supposed to remember all that happened, but I do, except for the 3 minutes or so when they had all the stuff installed and had to set off the shocking mechanism of the defibrillator to correct an arrhythmic condition they set up.\u00a0 I wonder how they did that.\u00a0 After the operation was done, I was walked back across the hall to my room where I had been earlier.\u00a0 The nurse changed from Anne to Judy, to whom I had been introduced earlier, and who was with me throughout the procedure.<\/p>\n

Once back in the room (some time after NOON), so it was only about a 45-minute procedure, I was allowed to take my cell phone to my right ear (cannot use on the left side where the device is), to call John.\u00a0 I told him I was all right, and asked nurse J to verify as she had been there the whole time as well.\u00a0 She spoke to him for a minute and handed the phone back to me.\u00a0 Then they brought me lunch.\u00a0\u00a0 That was a welcome sight.\u00a0 There was white bean soup, pretty good, and a casserole mostly noodles with chicken flavor, but I only ate a small amount of that, and carrots.\u00a0 I requested a chocolate milk shake.\u00a0 That eventually made it to me, but the nurse told me it required an act of congress.\u00a0 There was a black coffee that I did not drink.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember getting any water until I was in my hospital room.<\/p>\n

A room upstairs in the telemetry area did not open till 4:00 p.m. for me to be moved.\u00a0 They rolled me up there in my bed with all my belongings piled on top of my legs (another narrow bed).\u00a0 I was able to get up and get into my new bed, and requested a pillow for beneath my left arm and removed the sling that was VERY uncomfortable.\u00a0\u00a0 I was introduced to my private room, with a shared bath, and told it was like a bed & breakfast.\u00a0 Yeah, right.\u00a0 Well, as it turned out the gentleman next door never used the bathroom.\u00a0 He must have been on a catheter and they just used it to pour down the toilet from the catcher container.\u00a0 I know all about that from ICU for so long.\u00a0 It was nice to be able to go on my own when I wanted.<\/p>\n

Dinner was served at 6:00 p.m. and it was quite good.\u00a0 The nursing assistant cut up the meat for me, and it surprised me how tasty it was.\u00a0 She cut off the fat as well.\u00a0 It was flank steak cooked tender in a gravy, and there were little potatoes that still had skins and were good too.\u00a0 Coffee again, which I traded for hot cocoa.\u00a0 Dessert was a tapioca pudding\u2026 that was actually edible, so I ate it \u2013 minus a gob of white fluffy stuff and an embedded rose petal.<\/p>\n

There were frequent visits taking my blood pressure and temperature, even though I was hooked to the outside desk in front of the nurses, with 6 pieces of information being telemetered to them–that\u2019s what the telemetry floor means.\u00a0\u00a0 I carried the unit in the pocket of a new gown I was transferred into once I got to this room.\u00a0\u00a0 I think this \u201cfloor\u201d is basically an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).\u00a0 I was on 2 South in room 265, where there are but 7 beds in the unit.\u00a0 The other unit has 20 beds, and I do not know its location in the hospital.<\/p>\n

My cardiologist, Dr. K, stuck his head in the door and surprised me.\u00a0 I said, \u201cOh, Dr. K, I didn\u2019t expect you!\u00a0 He said (always addresses me this way), \u201cProfessor, I saw your name on the board and thought I would visit you.\u201d\u00a0 What a cool guy.\u00a0 He said he was happy to hear the procedure went well, but when he heard my concerns about the strictness of the recovery actions for up to 8 weeks, he said that sounded a little extreme to him.\u00a0\u00a0 He wondered if perhaps they had had trouble with the operation.\u00a0 I told him I would ask that in the morning of the Dr. or his physician\u2019s assistant who was supposed to meet with me before checkout.\u00a0 I also told him that I was awake during the operation and heard nothing out of the ordinary, and that it seemed to go well, as I had been told that once done.\u00a0\u00a0 I thanked him for his visit.<\/p>\n

Next visitors really were a surprise– two married students from my past.\u00a0 We had a nice visit.\u00a0 They are geography graduates from CWU and now live in Yakima and have jobs there.\u00a0 They had read about the planned procedure on this blog.<\/p>\n

The rest of my evening and night was largely interrupted by taking my vitals, even though I was wired into the telemetry board.<\/p>\n

The most disturbing thing to me was that the room across the hall in full view and within earshot was in \u201cisolation.\u201d\u00a0 This did not make me comfortable to watch everyone who entered don a gown and gloves and head piece.\u00a0 I assume the patient had Mersa (MRSA or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria that can cause skin infections), which I had been tested for earlier.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how long the test takes before they have to isolate a person.\u00a0 She was in obvious distress as well.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy that for whatever reason, very late at night, they moved her completely up a floor.\u00a0 That experience was a bit unnerving.<\/p>\n

I started having the pain killer from the operation wear off after 4:00 and my first pain killer given at 4:30, a dose of Tylenol with Codeine.\u00a0 They could only give it every 3 hours.\u00a0 I was complaining still of pain 2.5 hours into the first pill.\u00a0 This kept on all night, but the pain never ceased.\u00a0 They did give me an ice pack, but finally I requested more of a pain pill in the morning, and they provided (not until noon) a Vicodin.\u00a0 I think that should have been taken care of sooner in my aftermath of the procedure.<\/p>\n

I did have two more visitors (friends) during the morning hours, and visits from a cardiologist (not my own), and G, a physician\u2019s assistant to Dr. F, my surgeon for the procedure.\u00a0 I did not get to talk to him, but she had reviewed my case and said everything went according to plans.\u00a0 Nothing was out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

They needed my room for another person coming in from ER, so I was to be ushered out before noon, if possible.\u00a0 It was not possible, because I had to wait for my \u201cride\u201d home.\u00a0 I had also ordered lunch, and it was brought a little sooner than normal.\u00a0 I asked them to fix it up \u201cto go\u201d and I would eat it at home.\u00a0 It was chicken stir fry with veggies and rice.\u00a0 There was also strawberry cheesecake which my friend B ate, and the fruit had watermelon in it, which I detest, so we left that behind.\u00a0 I still needed to get dressed, but needed to wait for R to get there and bring a different blouse from what I arrived in, because I figured it would be too tight for my left arm that cannot be lifted above my head.\u00a0 All this occurred in good time, and we must have pulled out of the parking lot at 12:30. They had to be sure I didn\u2019t drive away, and so Nurse L, pushed me in a wheel chair there, and waited for R to retrieve the car, and watched me enter the passenger seat .\u00a0 B was there too, carrying the flowers and my stuff.\u00a0 What would one do without friends?<\/p>\n

So, off to Ellensburg, and home.\u00a0 I\u2019ll stop there.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, not quite yet.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m unhappy about the recovery time and limitations.\u00a0 I cannot lift my left arm above my shoulder nor lift more than a coffee cup (one person said); another place on my release paperwork, says not more than 5 lbs. for 6 to 8 weeks–and NO driving. \u00a0That\u2019s really going to cramp the style I\u2019ve gotten used to over the past couple of months.\u00a0 Cannot play my fiddle in the normal way– unable to keep it from over the incision.<\/p>\n

I am going back for a device check at the Yakima Heart Center on Tuesday morning this week at 11:30, and R is going to be kind enough to drive me down again.\u00a0 We can also pick up the device transmitter once there and ask more questions about playing the violin and driving.\u00a0 Or, maybe I won\u2019t ask, just figure how to cushion the area.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that I do have a new lease on life with the defibrillator installed.\u00a0 So the story goes on.\u00a0 [Next installment \u2013 Tuesday, the 8th<\/sup>.]<\/p>\n

Nancy, thanking you for all your thoughts and prayers in my behalf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* “Refers to the TV series ‘Dragnet’, where Jack Webb played Sergeant Joe Friday (Badge No. 714).” Each story began \u201cMy name is Joe Friday, I\u2019m a cop — Yeah, there are a thousand stories in the naked city and this is just one of them.\u201d Nancy\u2019s Impressions of the Defibrillator Implant Day, June 1 … Continue reading “SATURDAY — one of a thousand stories*”<\/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":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recovery-stage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-8C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","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=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}