Technical Problem

I have just returned from work to find a nice package at my front door. As I gaze in wonderment at the surprise delivery I was thinking, it isn't my birthday, it isn't Mother's Day, so what could this be.

Upon closer inspection I read the return address label. St. Jude Medical. Uhmmmmm I thought and proceeded into the house. I carefully opened the very nice shaped brown package. Inside was another box and I removed it and opened it as well. I placed the mystery gift on the kitchen counter. I marveled at the case, all pretty in black. I opened the case and to my surprise was my new Merlin. The remote monitoring system for my new Accent pacemaker. (I have some recollection of a conversation about something arriving in the mail after my surgery. I was still drugged and dazed so I don't remember much about it.)

The design in nice. The colors are green and white. There are manuals and a DVD to read and watch. I quickly read the condensed version of instructions and the first thing I read is that I require a phone jack. YIKES!!!!

Now that is a problem. There is only one phone jack in my house and it isn't in my bedroom. It is located in the kitchen. All the other phones in the house are remote, cordless and wireless phones. Unless I plan on sleeping in the kitchen I think I am going to have to have new phone wiring installed with a phone jack in the bedroom.

I was going to have the land line completely removed 2 months ago because we rarely use the land line, but something told me to wait. Now I find that I actually medically require it.

Now my question is: Are the installation charges considered a medical expense? Also, can I deduct the land line expense as a medical expense?

Maybe I can sweet talk my hubby into doing the phone wiring and installing a new phone jack on his day off.

5 Comments

hi

by Sgood - 2010-03-25 09:03:10

Well I'm not sure how your monitor is compared to mine, but I pretty much had the same problem...no phone jack in my bedroom. So I hooked it up in the kitchen and pull a chair in there and do my call in's sitting up and so far it's not been a problem. I have a cordless phone there, but my St Judes monitor doesn't use the phone itself, just the jack (some of the old ones i had you had to physically lay the phone over the monitor). Hope this helps!

Merlin

by pacergirl - 2010-03-25 10:03:19

I forgot to mention that my new pacemaker is wireless. It uses a base station that communicate to my pacemaker while I am asleep. Totally wireless and it is always plugged into the phone jack. The pacemaker relies on the wireless unit to relay the information to the dr. office or other center.
I don't have to hook up anything to me. The old way was with the wrist bands and the phone in the cradle.

I just read the schedule the dr. office's has me on and they have scheduled me for a check up on LABOR DAY! I wonder who is working on Labor Day at the Drs. office. Of course I will be nice and call them tomorrow, but with a little attention to details like holidays would save everyone a lot of trouble.

PG

merlin

by thomast - 2010-03-25 11:03:24

With my old PM I had a unit that had a coil on a wire which I put over the PM and pushed a button to read out. My new unit is the same but they said just to put it within 10 feet of the bed and it would do it remotly, so I did. The two times I have used the new one they called me and had me do it the old way, so I don't know why I went to all the trouble of putting it on the head of the bed. It does not matter if anyone is in the office when you read it out or not. It just goes into the computer and they look at it when they get to it.

Thomas

phones

by LS - 2010-03-26 09:03:32

Even my cordless phones have phone jacks??
My problem was I didn't have a cradle type phone. LOl All mine are cordless & they said they cause interference with the tests.
So, I found a 10.00 cradle type at Walgreens that worked perfectly!
I bought one of those cheap little dual phone jacks (from Radio Shack), plugged it in (the kitchen jack) & away I went with no problems.
Hope this helps
Liz

Hubby

by ElectricFrank - 2010-03-26 12:03:18

Tell your hubby you will have to sleep on the kitchen floor if he doesn't put some wiring in for you!!

Is your device an ICD? The Medtonics rep told me that they only used the continuous monitor for ICD patients. If not you might be able to arrange to schedule tests during the day. Just get one of those adapters that plug into the existing phone jack and give you access to 2 jacks.

frank

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