Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Dealing With It

I went for my 3 month manufacturer check-up last Monday for my pacemaker. Several interesting things came up. The first is that my aortic lead is probably misplaced. The second is that my Heart Block has resolved. A follow-up visit to the cardiologist on Friday didn't really settle anything. I have to have a chest x-ray this week and speak with my doctor next week about options concerning the aortic lead.

I was unsettled about the findings that the Heart Block had resolved. We still don't know why exactly I had heart block in the first place. My doctor's opinion is that my weight combined with severe sleep apnea at the time caused it. At any rate the hardest pill for me to swallow is the fact that pacemakers and leads are not removed, even if the condition is resolved. I guess this caused me to finally face up to the fact that at age 36 I can look forward to ALWAYS having a pacemaker inside me. I still haven't completely dealt with it internally. The doctor and several other people have told me to be "thankful" that I have the pacemaker. I can see why they say that, but it still sticks in my craw for now.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what type of Heart Block did you have? i'm 32 and was diagnosed with hb a couple of years ago. no pacemaker yet: yearly monitoring. i'm curious what criteria are used for determining when a pacemaker is needed.