30 years paced

Please consider placing this post under Success Stories!

by Gemita - 2024-05-10 10:59:24

Oh Tracey, that is wonderful news and I shall raise my glass for another 30  years!  I hope you will join me?

I know you don’t “pace” yourself in life because that wouldn’t give you any excitement, but what do you put such a successful pacing experience down to?  Are you just by nature an optimist who loves her family, life and challenging activities or has pacing always been so natural, so successful for you?   How can we make the most out of our pacing experience if things don't quite turn out as we had hoped?

congrats on your milestone

by new to pace.... - 2024-05-10 11:06:09

You are an inspiration to those of us who are just starting out on this journey.

new to pace

Gemita

by Tracey_E - 2024-05-10 11:35:07

I think it's different being congenital. I've never known any different, so I never had to adjust to the news that my heart wasn't right. And I grew up with so many restrictions- no sports, no gym class, constantly being told NO TRACEY GO SIT DOWN. I've been a bit like a kid in a candy shop ever since I got that first pacer, because now I can do all those things I wasn't able to before. I'll never take that for granted. There might be bumps in the road, but I try not to focus on them. 

But yeah, it's probably obvious that I'm a glass-half-full person, and always try to look on the bright side. That helps too. Attitude goes a long way. A pacer is new life, not the beginning of the end. It makes me sad to see newbies afraid life as they knew it is over. It's not. 

*raising my glass*

30 years paced

by Lurker (Doc DX) - 2024-05-10 12:38:47

Congratulations Tracey

Glasses high everyone. 
 

"Here's to Tracey and another 30"

Doc DX

S

More Congratulations

by benedeni - 2024-05-10 13:28:22

HEAR HEAR

or is it HERE HERE!!

Regardless, Congratulations, Tracey

....and thank you to your doctors!

by Penguin - 2024-05-10 16:42:09

Looking after someone for 30 years and keeping them well and able to enjoy life must be so rewarding, particularly when the pacemaker recipient comes from such a limiting situation (as yours clearly was).  It must be very satisfying for them to see such progress and to be part of your success.  

 Here's to as many more decades as you need using the same successful combination. 

30 Years

by Flo - 2024-05-10 18:47:47

That is great Tracey! Congratulations! 

Congrat's Tracey

by Good Dog - 2024-05-10 19:08:42

When you consider that prior to the late 1950's somone with our condition likely would not have had much if any quality of life. So the longevity that a pacemaker can provide is certainly impressive, but combine that with a high quality of life and it is truly amazing. 

I wish you many, many more years of the same!

Sincerely,

Dave

🥂

by Lavender - 2024-05-10 20:57:07

Raising a glass-of water-lol but with a very spirited attitude! You're always an inspiration!

Congrats on three decades of pacing! 💗💐

Good Dog

by Tracey_E - 2024-05-10 22:40:25

It's crazy to me to think that if I'd been born the same year as my mom, I would probably not have seen my 30th birthday. If I had, I would have had no quality of life. Not only has the pacer kept me alive, but has allowed me to thrive. And that's just from two decades of technology. Then I think about the changes in technology since we got our first ones. Truly mind-blowing when you think about it. 

(am I the only one who hears Raise a Glass and immediately starts humming Hamilton??)

Congrats

by doublehorn48 - 2024-05-10 22:44:01

As long as I've been following this forum you have always been insightful and upbeat. As our British friends say, "you have to admire a stiff upper lip."

Here's to 30 and many more

m. scott

Thirty years

by AgentX86 - 2024-05-11 00:10:59

It is sobering to think that it's not been that long since we wouldn't have survived, or have a much reduced quality of life.  When my father-in-law had his (two) CABGs, they weren't exactly experimental but they weren't all that common and were a huge deal.  Now, they're almost routine. The anesthetic is a large part of the total risk.

Congratulations, and I hope I can make it another 24 years, paced.😁

39 years

by piglet22 - 2024-05-11 05:57:47

We all have to thank our little boxes and how they transform our lives.

I wonder how people coped with CHB a few centuries ago.

The diagnostic tools wouldn't be there, nor the semiconductor devices that keep us going.

The main controller might be a sliver of silicon a couple of millimetres square, yet it's packed with transistors, memory etc 

Even modest chips are capable of 16 million calculations per second 

Totally unimaginable to our great grandparents.

Thanks to the medics and guinea pigs who tried the prototypes, and the scientists and engineers who developed all the components.

We mustn't forget how lucky we are to live in societies that make all this possible.

30 years paced!

by Aberdeen - 2024-05-11 06:12:28

Congratulations Tracey! I like your positive message and also the reference to Hamilton!

Amazing!

by SeenBetterDays - 2024-05-11 10:24:42

Thirty years is incredible.  Thanks Tracey for always giving us positivity and hope.  You are an inspirational woman and hearing about all the things that you do has helped me to view my little machine as more of a blessing than a curse! Congratulations on reaching such an amazing milestone.

Something to celebrate!!

by Andiek11 - 2024-05-11 12:14:41

Wow!  Quite the accomplishment and well worth celebrating.   Here's  to another 30!!  :)

Congrats Tracey

by Grateful Heart - 2024-05-11 18:41:52

You have helped so many over many many years and a great example of how to live as a paced person.  

Thank you for all you do for all of us.

From the bottom of my paced heart!

Grateful Heart  

Congrats tracey

by athena123 - 2024-05-13 22:48:29

Keep doing what you love tracey and thank you for all you wonderful advice. godbless

Congratulations Tracey_E

by RioTeresa - 2024-05-20 22:21:17

And thank you for all the wonderful, compassionate and comforting advice you have given to others, including me over the years.

I’m going on 29 years myself and I’ve had some rough times, including now (fractured lead, 2nd time, meeting with lead extraction surgeon Thursday) but life has been MUCH better than before the pacemaker! I wouldn’t be here without it so I can’t help but be thankful to the doctors and scientists and patients who made this little machine possible.

Best wishes Tracey_E for another healthy, happy 30 years! 😁❤️🎉

Teresa

congrats

by dwelch - 2024-06-06 02:41:16

You are an extremely valuable member to this site and I am happy to hear this news.  Do a smidge of math you will hit the paced half life next year?  I hit mine a number of years ago, I was doing some rough math and I think I will hit 2/3rds of my life paced this year, need to compute the exact day. I took the day off when I hit my half life and reflected on it.

I say this 100 times but I need to go find that old book in some old library somewhere that had the info on CCHB life expectancy before pacemakers, you made it well into your 20s, I made ot to 19 and probably would have made it into my 20s but before pacemakers made CCHB relatively easy, life expectancy was lucky to make adulthood for us.  That is what I remember from a book all those years ago trying to find answers long before a public internet existed or this site with the amazing Tracey_E to guide us thorugh this journey.

I am not here every day like you I pop in randomly but from what i can tell I have been on this site about 14 years and you continue to educate me as well as the rest of us. 

Enjoy this milestone and start chipping away at the next ones.  (the good ones, half life, 40 years paced, 2/3rds life, 3/4ths life and so on).

had to post twice

by dwelch - 2024-06-06 02:45:59

Seriously, this is a milestone for you but your knowledge and help here, you can accumulate the years of others lives that you and your pacer have helped.  You have hundreds of paced years you have provided the world.  Easily more experience than any one EP will ever have.