I need alittle help

My name is Seth I've have a pacer since 2002 on my second one and 100% dependent on it. I know most have heard about the VA Hospital in Phoenix, well ends up I was on one of their list. 3 years ago I was told I had cancer , it was like one visit I had it then the next I didn't this went on for along time then they closed part of the clinic I was going to, but the last I was told I didn't have it . Well I found out a month ago I did have it and still do and it has spread. Because of the pacer I can't have a lot of the test to see how far it has spread.no MRI's etc. I have no one to really talk about it to my wife can't handle it . I've accepted it I guess but kinda worried about it ... one thing that really bothers me a lot is the fact I'm 100% depentant on the pacer . Last time it was replace they turn it down then off to see if my heart would beat so they could change it but my heart stopped so they ran the wire to keep it going as they replace the pacer, I know they have said I have maybe less then a year, I can handle that but what scares me is what happens when I do die. Will the pacer keep my heart beating prolonging the dying part . The doctors can't seem to agree on it. please help...

4 Comments

You left out the most...

by donr - 2015-07-02 08:07:51

...important part of your Bio sketch. You, by virtue of birth year 1949 are obviously a Viet Nam era vet. You deserve better that what happened to you at Phoenix. Don't know if you were drafted or volunteered, but you stood up when called. From one vet to another, thanks for being with me when the going got tough.

Will your PM keep you going when the rest of you wants to die? I think that simplifies your question.

The answer is "No."

Supposing you have a heart attack from a clogged artery. The heart muscle dies from lack of blood & no end of pacing impulses can make it function when the tissue is dead.

Supposing you die from lung cancer - the body cannot get oxygen from dead lungs, shot full of cancerous masses, hence the heart cannot beat because the tissue will cease functioning & responding to your PM's pulses.

The body is a bunch of interacting, interdependent systems. Should one completely fail, the rest of the body will cease functioning, also. It is said that all death comes from heart failure, but that is not necessarily true. Knock out any major organ - lungs, kidneys, liver, brain, pancreas, pick it...

Should any one of them fail, the body will cease to have some function carried out that is absolutely essential for continued life.

The electrical system of the heart is just another one of those systems. It cannot perform the functions of any other system. As soon as the heart's muscle fibers cease to be able to function - regardless of the reason - the PM can do no more. Like the Energized Bunny, it may keep going, but there will be nothing else that can respond to its largess.

Donr

Answers

by sethspeaks - 2015-07-02 12:07:46

I was not drafted and spent almost 3 tours in Nam. I was wounded for the third time with a month left to serve . I spent just over 16 months in the hospital I've had 54 operations and was in a coma for 5 weeks. I've been "dead " 14 times , the longest time was 21 minutes. I know in death your mind can do strange things In that 21 minutes I lived a life time. I guess being though all this I have a somewhat different outlook one things. Now facing what I am I need to be ready for whatever outcome ....I know when they tested my pacer when it needed to be replaced they turned it off and my heart stopped, my wife was there and told me later she could see the life draining from me, I told her I knew because I felt it draining. Of course they turned it back up and ran a wire to keep it beating until they did the replacement . To me that tells me it holds a lot of power over life and death. My concern is simple yet complex to me. If I were back in the hospital on oxygen and with the pacer my heart would keep beating supplying even a limited amount of oxygen to my brain and other places. I know different functions still go on . Example be very careful what you say if you are near someone that just died because your hearing is the last sence to stop.
I guess the bottom line is death doesn't scare me but having life prolonged even by minutes with a pacer scares the hell out of me more then the dying...it is the time between life and total death that scares me, been there done that sort of thing,,

what does it matter

by sethspeaks - 2015-07-04 12:07:53

by the way dohr to me it doesn't matter if someone was drafted or not ... They served, they were wounded, AND THEY DIED,,,,,,THAT IS WHAT MATTERS NOT WEATHER THEY WERE DRAFTED ...DO do me a favor don't bother me again...

why reply?

by pancres - 2015-08-01 06:08:40

How rude!!

You know you're wired when...

You have a $50,000 chest.

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