Thank you being here for me

• by sailingvan
• 2008-12-17 08:12:01
• General Posting
• 1246 views
• 6 comments

Hi All,

I have been lurking around here since Sept 2 2008 reading as many posts as I can since my implant.
A little history about myself very athletic in my youth up until 25 years old rode triathlons and did a cross canada bike ride jumped out of planes and such always took pride in my low resting heart rate and perfect blood pressure.

Fast forward 13 years age 38
I was being certified for nitrox and mixed gases for scuba and began to pass out in 60 feet of water. I managed to do an emergency ascent and for the next 2 days couldn't get out of bed. I thought it was due to equipment failure and wrote it off as that.
A week later while driving my heavy work truck on to a large bridge at about 75 kilometers an hour i felt myself beginning to pass out and hit the brakes hard. When I woke up having gone over a large embankment and magically threading my way through some telephone poles I was pretty stunned not a mark on my truck and I was still alive.

Not one person who saw me go off the road stopped.
I wasn't sure what had just happened to me but I thought maybe I should get to somewhere more visible so I drove over said bridge and promptly passed out again.

Where I stopped the second time was within a block of the hospital. (I had no idea there was a hospital there)
Called an ambulance and the attendant took my blood sugar and pointed at the hospital and asked me if i wanted a ride.
I declined and walked over.
In the waiting room I passed out while talking to my wife she alerted the nurse and off i went to a bed.

My heart stopped 12 times that weekend in icu they implanted a temporary pace maker through my neck which caused more problems so I asked them to turn it off which they did.

I had a very hard time with all the nurses and doctors telling me not to worry they see this all the time and everything was gonna be ok. But they were right everything was ok.


Pace maker implanted on tuesday that week. Wow what a quick procedure. It took them 2 hours to put the one in my neck . It seemed to take less than an hour for the one in my chest.

For the first 2 months my body fought that pacemaker every step of the way. I was dizzy scared anxious and weak also a huge burden on my wife. I had this terrible feeling that something was wrong my blood pressure went through the roof
just a general sense of dread.

I bullied my way into the pace maker clinic cause I thought I was gonna die. They hooked me up on the big chair and the doctor told me everything was fine sort of curtly.

My doctor prescribed me a .5 dose of clonazepam twice a day
that helped alot. They don't make you woozy but it takes the anxiety away.

3 months later I am felling alot like myself again although not ready to run marathons.

Sorry for the long post just wanted to share my experience and express my gratitude for being able to read others experiences

Brent