{"id":538,"date":"2010-06-08T22:28:13","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T05:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/hultquist\/?p=538"},"modified":"2010-06-08T22:28:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T05:28:13","slug":"tuesday-living-with-an-icd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/?p=538","title":{"rendered":"TUESDAY — Living with an ICD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nancy\u2019s report on first week\u2019s check-up on incision and device, that is the recently implanted cardiovertor defibrillator, known as an ICD.\u00a0 (John thinks we should name it something, perhaps Hypatia<\/em> :<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.women-scientists-in-history.com\/hypatia.html<\/a> )<\/p>\n

We were up early to start a long day.\u00a0 John had to spend time home with the roofer to meet the delivery team who trucked in supplies for the roof of our barn and house.\u00a0 I went with the roofer\u2019s wife to my appointment at the Yakima Heart Center, in Yakima, an hour away.\u00a0 We left John in charge of watching mama and puppies.\u00a0 She was disturbed by all the noise on the roof and strangers outside her window.\u00a0 She was upset most of the day, even after I got back home.\u00a0 She has now calmed down after 6:30 p.m. and is back eating, with John\u2019s company.\u00a0 He is reading today\u2019s news on the web, via computer.\u00a0 I\u2019m in my recliner writing this entry for the blog and anticipating eating dinner before John puts it out on the blog.\u00a0 He also has to move the horses off grass and back to their pen.<\/p>\n

My appointment was with a device specialist, of which there are two at the Yakima Heart Center.\u00a0 They were trained in classes paid for by the manufacturer of my defibrillator (with pacemaker included).\u00a0 I will need to go back in for periodic check-ups every 3 months for the life of my device.\u00a0 I thought today I would get the gizmo to put by my bedside that would broadcast my records every night to a satellite and on to the manufacturer.\u00a0 That did not happen today and won\u2019t until my next visit, in 3 months, in September.<\/p>\n

Today, I was ushered into an examination room with a recliner.\u00a0 It was an automatic one with a remote handled by the examiner.\u00a0 She put some wires and connectors on me such as those used in an EKG, and put a receiver on top of the place where my device resides.\u00a0 I was told I am thin (haven\u2019t heard that since the 7th<\/sup> grade), and that my device would stick out a bit.\u00a0 She then started a machine which was downloading information from the device and displaying it on charts and graphs on a printer tape output.\u00a0 I wish I had asked for a copy, but I didn\u2019t think to do it.\u00a0 I saw some of them, such as shocks.\u00a0 Knowing I had not felt a shock, I asked her what that was.\u00a0 She said it was from after the implantation, when they put me to sleep for a few minutes, and induced the device to make my heart fibrillate, so they could see if the ICD functioned as intended and shocked the faltering heart beat back to normal rhythm.\u00a0 It had. \u00a0\u00a0She reviewed all the reports and stated that all was well, and it was operating just fine.<\/p>\n

I asked her what the shock was like and when it would occur… after I had fainted or before.\u00a0 She said patients have told her it is like a horse kicking a person in the chest.\u00a0 Well, that doesn\u2019t sound like fun, so I\u2019m happy they put me out for the testing.\u00a0 She also said people respond differently.\u00a0 She asked if I had ever fainted and I told her I had not.<\/p>\n

She finished that test and said we would talk about the recovery time and the things I should not do.\u00a0 I told her about the \u201csquishing\u201d sound I heard over the last week, but she had never heard that from anyone.\u00a0 Not surprising; I\u2019m always the individual with different reactions to medical procedures.\u00a0 She told me not to worry about it.<\/p>\n

I reported the pain I had that I thought went on too long.\u00a0 She said I might have pain from this for months.\u00a0 So, the fact I\u2019m pretty much controlling it, with regular acetaminophen, is a positive note.<\/p>\n

I told her about what the representative (from the device company) told me after the operation.\u00a0 He had told me not to pick up more weight than a coffee cup with my left arm, and not to raise my arm above my shoulder for 6 to 8 weeks, and NOT TO DRIVE for 8 weeks.\u00a0 This was different from anything I had been told previously and read on the web\u2026 or in talking with people, including my cardiologist.\u00a0 I realize they don\u2019t want me pulling out the wires, but that was going to be very constrictive on my activities, and getting myself to town for physical therapy, music or anything else.\u00a0 Bummer.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t forget to ask about this issue.<\/p>\n

Right away she said, no, you may drive, right now, just be cautious not to jerk your left arm and lift it above your shoulder.\u00a0 Those were sweet words to my ears, and my reaction was that I wanted to hug her but couldn\u2019t raise my arm to do so!\u00a0 She got a laugh from that comment.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m so happy to have my freedom back.<\/p>\n

The next discussion was about whether I would agree to participate in a study of my progress, by sharing my records (from the device) with a research team seeking to improve the technology.\u00a0 Of course, so I signed on the line and got a description of the study.\u00a0 (from John: I wonder if the patient\u2019s medical history will be transmitted to the research team?\u00a0 If so, they need to order more paper and ink<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Then she removed my dressing \/ patch over the incision.\u00a0 She remarked that it was healing very well, and told me I could shower now, and let water fall on the wound, which is not sutured with stitches, but is held together with little strips of tape.\u00a0 In time those will curl up and fall off.\u00a0 I am not supposed to scrub the spot.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t look down and really see it and she didn\u2019t have a mirror.\u00a0 Once in the car I got to view it.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s my story, and I\u2019m truly a happy person.<\/p>\n

[The barn got its new roof before dark and it is now raining.\u00a0 Awesome.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy\u2019s report on first week\u2019s check-up on incision and device, that is the recently implanted cardiovertor defibrillator, known as an ICD.\u00a0 (John thinks we should name it something, perhaps Hypatia : http:\/\/www.women-scientists-in-history.com\/hypatia.html ) We were up early to start a long day.\u00a0 John had to spend time home with the roofer to meet the delivery … Continue reading “TUESDAY — Living with an ICD”<\/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-538","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-8G","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","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=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}