CHB, Pacemaker and Discharged a day later

• by D-Five of Fourteen
• 2019-11-21 17:09:11
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1173 views
• 2 comments

Hi Everyone 🤘😏

I'm a 48yr old Mum and a New Zealander living in the Waikato currently but relocating soon to Wellington.

Went to the Dr on Wed 13th November for some answers. I'd had a series of weird symptoms since the beginning of the year but the three other doc visits had them telling me that there was nothing wrong. This last Doc listened. Not only did she take my BP she actually listened. Even took my wrist to find my pulse... ordered an ECG and the pretty lines told her that I needed to get to the hospital.

Within an hour of going to ED, I was in a bed hooked up to monitoring equipment. My HR was 42. 

They did a ton of blood tests, Echo and MRI and after a heart pause of 9 secs , they were scurrying to get me on the surgery list. I had a telemetry of 31-38bpm and an awake average of 34-36 ...I had a Complete Heart Block (CHB). 

Monday 18th November at about 3pm  they plugged me in. I was awake. It took 4x local anesthetic to get it to work fully - a family thing. 

Within 4 hrs of the surgery, I had more colour in my cheaks. Boy it felt good to feel my pulse. I could feel it in my buttocks! LOL

I suppose because of the prolonged lack of blood in my body in all the places, having a flood of blood has meant a fast heal. Without painkillers (Codine and paracetamol) I could feel EVERYTHING. Every cut, rend, stitch. And there's virtually no bruises and a wound that's itchy as - sutured and sealed with supaglue. 

One odd thing is sometimes my heart will be beating, and my whole chest will be beating too. Freaky. Change of position fixes this.

Coming off codine slowly and still taking paracetamol 4 hourly. Also taking Laxsol because of the codine, eating kiwifruit and taking Slippery Elm to try and get the other plumbing working. 

Every now and again I am overwhelmed with the thought is 'So that happened" and how I wouldn't be alive without it 😱

One othe hardest things is allowing myself to rest amd take things super slow. Eating, moving, sleeping and keeping brain active.