Johnnie Silver Might be Coming Back – Pt2

Well that all seemed to go OK.
 
Wednesday the 18th was an early’ish start to make our way through the wet weather traffic to get to the hospital for my 0900 appointment for a Pacemaker check.
 
We got there early and I was seen late, but that went well. Bloody amazing these Pacemaker thingys! I pull my T-shirt collar down for the man to have a quick perusal, he then puts a mouse-like thing over my shoulder and above the unit for a few seconds to download the data from it, then he parks himself at the computer to analyse the data have a play with the unit. ie speed it up and slow it down etc.
 
That was sort of funny …but not really ….because he says, “What I’m going to do now could put you into a total heart-block” and I’m thinking, “oh yeah, that’s death mode …..FFS!!!”
 
Within seconds, he then goes, “Oh no, you’re still firing OK.” It turns out that the units are set to a minimum firing rate of 50bpm and the unit was driving me, because the old body was happy to tick along at 48. All good it would seem.
 
He then mentions that I’m good for another 12 years & 3 months, but he’ll see me again in 6 months and it that’s all good, annually after that.
 
I wander back to the car, we go to the supermarket, then on to Wakefield ….an hour early for my 11am check-in.
 
They processed me straight through though, filling out three forms, then getting taken up to Rm204, I get stripped off and into the gown, nursey inserts a line into my left arm, then gives me a shave and puts some tight knee high compression socks on me ….and we wait until 1230.
 
Usual story, I get wheeled down to theatre, line installed in the right groin area, asked a few questions, crap gets fed into both lines ….and that’s all I have to say about that! Basically they used the same ‘good-oil’ local I was given for the TOE and although awake, the mind has no recollection.
 
So I’m back in the room, there’s a sandwich and orange juice …but turns out there was two sandwiches and a platter of fruit to go with the orange juice ….oh, and chocolate from Ann’s handbag and a lemon cake from the cafeteria which all disappeared like it was never there, I’ve got a blood pressure monitor doing it’s thing automatically every so many minutes, and once that is off, I get to use the facilities for a purge and a clean-up.
 
Apparently I could have had a shower, but I just opted to give myself a sponge bath to get all the iodine and bits of blood off, get comfortable in mt trackies and a T-shirt and settle back down to wait for dinner.
 
Doc turned up and we went over a few things (like dumping the meds), but it turns out that I have to stay on the blood thinners for 6 weeks and that is to prevent any rejection and clotting around the puncture repair plug, which has a gauze mesh and the body will just grow tissue over it. I haven’t been comfortable on the thinners, but that sounded like a good excuse so I rolled with it.
 
Ann was there until about 2100, Eboni dropped in on her way home and I finally turned the lights off at 2300 for a kip.
 
Nursey comes in at 0500 for the checks and I was surprised at the colour and swelling in the groin area ….but I flashed her anyway and gave it a poke so she could see it didn’t hurt. I’d been sleeping on top of the covers, but cold about 0200 so pulled them up, then was surprised at how hot I was when nursey came in and when I mentioned that, she askes, “So you’ve got a temperature then?” and I replied that no doubt, she would tell me that, but we were just cruisin’ at 36.5º.
 
I eventually got up around 0700 for a scrub, (shower this time) and was waiting when my Wednesday Arrival nursey came in. Turns out, all was good, Doctor wasn’t coming, so she went through the release procedure, I got changed, Ann turned up, breakfast turned up (so I paused briefly for that) ….then we gapped it and went for 2nd breakfast.
 
I’ve already made an appointment with my GP to start the ball rolling to get a clearance to drive again!! So hopefully Johnnie Walker might soon be a figment of my imagination.

Just a little bruising ....he must have been rough with me?