Thank you for letting me join the Pacemaker Club

• by PeterDutch
• 2017-04-12 08:33:08
• General Posting
• 1088 views
• 1 comments

I am Peter 72, Dutch but now living in the UK. Will try to make my story as short as possible.

Due to unexplained black-outs I had a cardiac monitor inserted. Last month I blacked-out again in the dentist chair. They called an ambulance, the crew checked heart/blood etc and told me that everythinh was fine. I mentioned my heart monitor to them but they did not take any notice.

Being not happy about it I contacted the cardio dept. in my hospital and ask them if I should make a data transfer (also have a Medtronic My care link) They agreed, called me back 10 minutes later and told me that I needed a pacemaker because the data showed that my heart stopped for 25 seconds.

Had my pacemaker operation 3 days later and the doctor told me that it was ok to fly after 5 days because we had a holiday booked in Florida. After our first week holiday I noticed that my left arm was red and slightly swollen. Went to the emergency in the nearest hospital and after various checks they told me that I have UE DVT (two blood clods) in my left arm. Stayed 2 days in the hospital, left with blood thinners and the instruction to sleep with my left arm on a pillow for a couple of weeks.

We are back in the UK now since last week and yesterday I had a bad night with coughs, burping and double hiccups. It is not even a month since I had my pacemaker but the whole thing and the additional problems upset me a lot. I think I have been very lucky and I am going to make the best of it but it is not easy and I am glad I found your website.

Peter