Well, today we saw Dr. Bello, our cardiologist, for our 4 month check up. It is hard to believe Todd' pacemaker has been in for that long already. We are still getting used to it. Dr. Bello said everything looked and sounded good. His only concern was that Todd hadn't had any blood work done since the surgery and due to the medications he is on he will need blood work done several times a year for the rest of his life (hope he likes needles). So we left with a script to have full blood work done.
After Dr. Bello left the pacemaker tech came in to read the pacer. He looked about 30 years old. He said he has had a pacemaker in for 20 years!!! I said, "How old were you when it was implanted, like 10?" He chuckled but replied that it was actually implanted a week before his 18th birthday. Wholly cow that's young. His symptoms were very much like Todd's. One day he passed out and it happened a few more times before they realized he had a "short" in his Electrophysiology system and the pacemaker was put in. He said he has lived a normal, active, healthy life since. That was reassuring.
As for the results of the reading. Todd has an "on-demand" pacer. This means it only kicks in when the heart goes above a certain bpm (I think it is 180) or below a certain bpm (this is 60...I know that for sure.) The reading indicated he is pacing about 10% of the time. None of it is ventricular pacing. This is good news because when the pacemaker has to pace the ventricular chamber too often, it gets "lazy" and studies show that it can lead to congestive heart failure. Todd's pacing has all (100%) been in the Atruim and there is no adverse effect when this happens. So good news.....and who knew I would learn so much about the heart this year? As a bonus I have found it very interesting.
This is a picture of Dr. Bello. He really is more handsome than this in person. But maybe I just think that because he saved my sweet husbands life!!
2 comments:
Holy blogerrific Batman!!! Are you feeling okay there Kendra Sue? Two blog updates in one week. Yikes! Ha Ha J/K Always good to here Toad is doing well and the doc gave him thumbs up. So glad we didn't find him collapsed on the side of the road at the TofT race. Went and saw Coco sing in the High School Christmas program. BJ's newphew Taylor also performed. How did they get so grown up when we haven't aged at all. I'm still 16 and your still 21. Right?!
Great news! This pacemaker thing is just going to be routine now. Glad you can get on with your lives! :)
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