Monday, June 20, 2011

...And relax!

We just got back from the hospital - it's great being the first appointment because you fly straight in and out again!
I'm really pleased to report that Charlie's pacemaker is working exactly as it should be - everything is 'perfect' according to the consultant.
I still don't really understand what they're talking about when they're discussing P-waves, thresholds and all the other technical stuff, but I DO understand about batteries, and apparently Charlie's pacemaker battery still has 11 years life left, with an absolute minimum estimate of 9.5 years, so that's fabulous news. It's crazy to think that, all being well, he'll be heading towards the end of secondary school before it needs replacing.
(It does make you realise how badly the first pacemaker he had was malfunctioning though, because he had it for less than a fortnight, and it only had 18 months battery left by the time they took it out!)
I thought you might like to see this picture, to show how simple it is for them to check his pacer - he has four ECG leads attached - one to each arm and one to each leg, and then the thing that looks like a big computer mouse is put on his tummy over his pacemaker (it has a row of lights that illuminate when it's in the right place) and all the information is downloaded that way.
It only takes ten minutes, but they get all the info from the past six months - heart rate, rhythm, how often his pacer has kicked in etc. It's very clever!
And Charlie was good as gold, as per normal. He's such a superstar when it comes to hospital appointments.
We don't go back to pacemaker clinic for another six months now, so our next appointment will be just before Christmas! (Although we've still got cardiology outpatients and INR clinic before then...)
But all in all, excellent news!

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