Great day(no kidding)

Tis done and very easily. So far no even any soreness. Could be it will show up tomorrow. I've got dinner on the stove so will post more later.

frank

16 Comments

Yeah!

by pacergirl - 2010-01-14 10:01:06

Frank I'm so glad to read that everything has gone well. It seems as if many of us are going to be getting new replacement pacers within the next few months. Reading your news makes me feel better about getting mine soon.

Rest up and you'll be back to all your activities very soon!
Pacergirl

welcome back

by Tracey_E - 2010-01-14 10:01:22

Glad all went well!

I kept waiting for the post with the webcast live from your surgery. I was so sure you'd find a way to pull it off!

Good

by SMITTY - 2010-01-14 11:01:35


Hey Frank,

Glad to hear things went well. I too kept my old pacemaker. I had thoughts about opening it and taking a look at the circuit board and the battery. But was I fooled. I can't get the thing open and I have some pretty serious cutting tools that will not work on titanium, I see. Do you know how it can be opened?

Now a word of advice,. Take it easy for a few days. My replacement turned out to be more sore (not painful) for several days than was the first one.

Smitty

frank

by jessie - 2010-01-14 11:01:35

way to go. in a few weeks you will be hitting the highway again. good for you!!!!

"THE BEAT GOES ON"

by Philman - 2010-01-14 11:01:35

Can't keep a good man down! You will have some great stories @ your new PM i"m sure......Thanks for hanging around.
-Philman

Why wait?

by ElectricFrank - 2010-01-14 11:01:36

Unless it hits me tomorrow (possible) I may be out Jeeping Saturday, who knows.

As I suspected, the actual replacement isn't any more challenging than a dental appt. The whole procedure took less than 30 minutes. It could be longer if you have a deeper implant than I do. There was also the pre-surgery antibiotic drip (30 min), O.R. draping and monitoring setup, and post-antibiotic drip( 30 min) which couldn't be started until about 4 hrs after the first.

I had it done with only a local anesthetic as I had planned which eliminated the recovery room phase. It was no problem at all, and let me interact with the OR team. There were LOL's

frank

Your a brave boy!!!

by Rewiredaussiegirl - 2010-01-15 03:01:39

Well done Frank !!!,,So glad it all went OK !
As Smitty said take it easy for a day or two as it may get a bit sore tomorrow..although you seem like a tough old ........,so you may not feel much pain,,lol
You have inspired me to ask if I could just have a local
anesthetic when I have mine done next year..sounds like the way to go..How does it feel to know that people from all over the world have been worrying about you?
Hope you enjoy your dinner and dont forget to have a couple of those nice cookies you baked yesterday..
Take a photo of your old unit for us to see (before you chop it up)

Kay

Thanks all

by ElectricFrank - 2010-01-15 03:01:50

Thanks to all for your thoughts. I'm planning on putting together a few posts on various aspects of the replacement to help others decide and deal with it.

One important thing at this point. My choice and experience isn't because of being brave or macho. For me it was an exciting experience that makes life interesting for me. It's not for everybody and important not to look at going for full anesthesia as being something less.

best,

frank

Thanks

by ppt - 2010-01-15 05:01:46

You are a very kind and amazing man. Thanks for keeping us all posted. Putnam

Just ran my first ECG on new pacer

by ElectricFrank - 2010-01-15 06:01:52

I just got around to looking at the ECG of my new pacer. I found some interesting differences that I'm going to have to track down. I've noticed right from when the doc transferred the leads to it that something was different. In fact I announced the changeover in O.R.

The first thing I need to do is run downtown and get some printer paper so I can download and print the technical manual on the new one (over 300 pages).

I'm feeling great this afternoon. I just layed down for an after lunch nap, but wound up just listening to 15 minutes of quiet music and I'm rarin to go.

frank

Good for yoy

by tomh140 - 2010-01-15 10:01:33

Glad to see that everything went ok yesterday. Take some time and enjoy life.

Tom

Well done Frank!

by Shirley - 2010-01-15 12:01:25

Glad to hear all went well...and the way you wanted:)

I saw you on here either very late at night or very early in the morning. I am on PST (VancouverBC CAN) so I figured about 9 hours difference between us. I was waiting for an update on your middle of the night snack!

Try, just a little, to pamper yourself for a bit. You may be feeling like your raring to go, but a 'little' rest would be in order after your ordeal....we're no spring chickens. Maybe wait until Sunday to go jeeping.

Cheers,
shirley

Smitty

by ElectricFrank - 2010-01-15 12:01:27

I haven't looked carefully at it yet as far as taking it apart.I'm sure the circuit board will be multilayer and too small to trace anything. I figure on putting my oscilloscope on the lead connections and see if they left it turned on. I think I will likely just fix a way to hang it around my neck!

As for the soreness, I'm pretty sure I'll know by tomorrow how it's going to do. I had originally blocked out through the weekend or more for it to heal. I'll just have to see. This one is way better than the original. Mine is right under the skin and he reused the pocket so the only real damage was the incision. For some reason I seem to heal pretty rapidly. The nurse had a bit of a time hitting a vein with the IV and warned me it would be sore. No problem there either.

The other thing strange is that I had planned on going to bed early tonight after a day of it, but I'm shot full of energy. I'll probably turn in around 10:00 as usual

Local Anesthetic

by MSPACER - 2010-01-16 05:01:54

I'm due for a replacement in a few months. I was asleep during the implant 8 years ago. I'm assuming that I will only get a local this time. How does it feel with a local? Did you feel any pressure, pain? Unfortunately, I'm a big wimp, and would rather be asleep, but I'm very leery about the side effects of general anesthesia.

MSPACER

by ElectricFrank - 2010-01-16 06:01:11

The only pain with the local only approach was getting the local! Kind of like going to the dentist, just several pin pricks around the site. In my case he started the incision before it had totally taken effect. He offered to wait a few more minutes, but for me it didn't amount to all that much so I told him to go on. It was completely painless very quickly. After that it was just feeling him doing things, but again nothing to be concerned about.

The only things to be aware of is that they will make a sterile tent like thing over your head and some people are bothered by it. Kind of closed in feeling. The other depends on how pacer dependent you are. When he changes the ventricle lead from the old to the new pacer you might skip a few beats. In my case being totally dependent they put some electrodes on my chest that they could use as an external pacer if they had a problem. I don't know how much of a jolt you feel from them, nothing like the defib paddles. From listening to the beep of the monitor I think I only missed 1 beat and didn't feel that.

By the way they will likely give you a short acting sedative unless you make it definite you don't want it. That would make a lot more sense than a general anesthetic. The surgical part only took about 30 minutes. Add to that getting getting connected to the monitors etc and then disconnected at the end added another 30 minutes or so.

For me the whole thing was trivial. I've been much more uncomfortable at the dentist.

My suggestion is to ask plenty of questions ahead of time, and be sure you get as much answered as you want. Don't take the "we'll take care of that" or "we'll be sure you are comfortable" answers. They have no way of knowing what makes you comfortable.

I'm planning on writing up some more posts about various aspects of the procedure. May be a it, but I think it might help.

best,
frank

Thanks Frank

by MSPACER - 2010-01-17 05:01:42

Thanks a lot Frank!

MSPACER

You know you're wired when...

Born to be Wired is your theme song.

Member Quotes

I'm 35 and got my pacemaker a little over a year ago. It definitely is not a burden to me. In fact, I have more energy (which my husband enjoys), can do more things with my kids and have weight because of having the energy.