Another new member. Hiya !

Wish I'd found ya'll a couple weeks ago ! I just had my single-lead ICD installed by the VA Medical Center in OKC last Thursday (3/12/15), and so far, so good ! My follow-up was great, I'm healing well, and for the first time since my peripartum cardiomyopathy (i.e., pregnancy-related heart failure) in 2000, my heart rhythm looks like it was machine-stitched, it was so even.

Still, there are a few hitches so far in my recovery, so I look forward to learning the ropes from my seniors-in-heart. I also hope to help anyone else I can, but my experience has been little. But I can always encourage !

Thanks in advance for putting up with me !

TGIF - and happy weekend to you,
DorrieBelle

4 Comments

Somehow...

by Grateful Heart - 2015-03-20 10:03:21


I find myself being the Walmart greeter tonight.......so, Welcome Dorrie. This is usually Donr's job but I think he is slacking tonight. lol

Grateful Heart

Welcome aboard, Vet!

by donr - 2015-03-21 07:03:38

You are the first female Vet I can recall seeing in here. And for a PM resulting from PG-related heart problems, no less. Knowing the rules of engagement for getting into the VA System, therein lies a very strange tale indeed!
Judging from your birth year, your period of service is probably mid-late 1980's. Did you, perhaps do Gulf War I in 1990 or so?

How 'bout filling in the details of your reason for a PM resulting in a single lead device & some data on the "Hitches" in your recovery. Hope they aren't serious.

Glad to have you.

Donr

(blush) Thanks for the welcome !

by DorrieBelle - 2015-03-21 11:03:39

Hi again ! Hope your Saturday was springing !

Actually, my VA tale is a bit odd... I did my tour from '86 - '89, you're spot on, donr ! I"m 48. Didn't see any Gulf War time, I was ineligible for re-enlistment due to asthma, so I did my three (plus 5 inactive, of course !), and separated - and started college ten days later ! My stuff from overseas took a bit longer to arrive, though...

I developed my heart disease nearly out of the blue, I just thought i was having a bad asthma series when the ER doctors discovered my heart was nearly twice as big as it had been the year prior. Our son was born the next day, and he was home several days before I was.

Not knowing we qualified for VA services (and with the Gulf vets coming back to little care back then, I was not *even* gonna ask !), we struggled with my issues for years (I'm not telling anyone here how expensive heart disease is !) until I landed in our local ER with a raging infection in '11 ... and when the admins found out I was an honorably discharged veteran, the hospital sent me to their care. Where the doctors chewed me out a bit for not seeking them out when I needed them, but they understood my rationale.

They've been taking exemplary care of me ever since, and it culminated in my ICD (single lead) installation last Thursday. My follow-up visit went great, I've even been cleared to drive and sew. I've had some minor sensations of the device moving a bit when I walk (which I've read here is fairly common, and so far has been just the one time), and a little post-surgery insomnia and a bit of shock-mourning, but reading others' tales has put any complaints I may have had into perspective right quick ! I've felt more energy, but I still tend to nap-crash some afternoons. It's possible I want so much to have that new life, I'm expecting a bit too much out of a really pushed-hard, half-neglected body. That's kind of why I'm here, I wondered what others' views have been, others' experiences and emotions.

Plus, I just love stories ! Gee, mine's been a book. Sorry - but I'd love to answer any other queries you have, and read yours ! Shoot me a link anytime !

For now, though, I am sleeepyyyy.....

Good, start...

by donr - 2015-03-22 12:03:20

...Dorrie! Now let's fill in a blank or two - or 25 - one for each year not accounted for. Got out in 1989; GW-I Vets came home starting in Feb 1990; a strange son born to a pair of strange parents sometime in 1990; Enlarged heart discovered then. F-FWD to 2011; raging infection & transferred to VA System. 4 yrs later in 2015, you get a single lead ICD W/ NO FURTHER EXPLANATION why. Us nosy critters inhabiting the PMC would like to know the details leading to that precipitous event. Especially what prompted it so many yrs post discovery of an enlarged heart. I assume that it is single Defib lead into RV? Does it also do any pacing or just De fib?

Donr

You know you're wired when...

Your kids call you Cyborg.

Member Quotes

My muscles are very sore but each day it gets better and my range of movement is improving.