Wife had 3 rd pacemaker yesterday
New technology is great. The Wife had her 3rd Pacemeker (heart) put in yesterday with new leads and is home today. The previous one only lasted 5 years and not 10 years due to the Heart Surgeo...
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DH is on his 4th. Just had a replacement in December 2014. His was only 4 years old and the battery ran out. This new one will be the same. His actually paces 100% of the time, so it doesn't last as long. He's not dependent upon it, however. He is subject to heart failure and both a-fib and v-tach, hence the 100% pacing. These new 3 lead devices have made a world of difference in him. He longer gets so tired or has "spells" like he did before. We are still religious about a low-salt diet (you DON'T want to deal with heart failure, trust me). And we walk for exercise and ride bikes.
BTW, if your wife's device is a Medtronic, check out their traveling site. Medtronic traveling. Since we didn't want to have to go back to Indiana in December for a replacement, the site helped us find a doctor in Houston who would change out the device. Easy peasy. We took our records in a week before, then had an appointment the following Monday. Doctor very nice. Did the swap the next day, had a followup two weeks later. We have decided since both DH's cardiologists are now gone, we are going to continue to see this new guy. We really liked him and he's young enough he won't retire (hopefully) on us!
We used to have to pay $11.43 a month for the Carelink device to send the info over the phone line. Now with the newer device, there is no charge since the hospital provides that or so we were told.
It is definitely better living through technology. While he has limitations and a multitude of things he can no longer do, the average person meeting him has no clue and as long as he listens to his body, he does extremely well.
So happy for us!
Dale
BTW, if your wife's device is a Medtronic, check out their traveling site. Medtronic traveling. Since we didn't want to have to go back to Indiana in December for a replacement, the site helped us find a doctor in Houston who would change out the device. Easy peasy. We took our records in a week before, then had an appointment the following Monday. Doctor very nice. Did the swap the next day, had a followup two weeks later. We have decided since both DH's cardiologists are now gone, we are going to continue to see this new guy. We really liked him and he's young enough he won't retire (hopefully) on us!
We used to have to pay $11.43 a month for the Carelink device to send the info over the phone line. Now with the newer device, there is no charge since the hospital provides that or so we were told.
It is definitely better living through technology. While he has limitations and a multitude of things he can no longer do, the average person meeting him has no clue and as long as he listens to his body, he does extremely well.
So happy for us!
Dale
