"Post-pacemaker Surgery" & things went very well!

Well here is the Pacemaker that is now helping my heart out... Like my Pain Pump it has a My Care link (this one is a base" that keeps me monitored remotely with the main heart center at Baylor ...

Wanted to let everyone know the doctors just came out and told me everything went well with mom’s surgery. It was much faster than they expected.

 — at Baylor Scott & White Heart and Vascular Hospital – Dallas.

I wanted to come and post but my chest, shoulder are quire sore.. also I appreciate you taking me and be there with me.. I know it was a long day, but having you there plus EVERYONE, nurses, the doctor, the anesthesiologist were wonderful... I was so thrilled with all and the results was even better.. 

I was SO PLEASED WITH MY DOCTOR, THE HEART HOSPITAL AND EVERYONE WHO WAS WITH ME THROUGH THE PROCEDURE!!!! I would HUGHLY recommend them to everyone...


I will write and post more as I feel a bit stronger... but I wanted to let everyone know things so far have gone extremely well...

https://www.baylorhearthospital.com/handler.cfm?event=practice,main

The Azure™ pacemaker is equipped with BlueSync™ technology and is compatible with MyCareLink Heart mobile app(opens new window) –– the latest innovation from Medtronic in remote monitoring.

Letter to Dr Blair about Cellulitis 9/21/2019

Hello Dr. Blair,

... on the 16th of August they were to do the pacemaker surgery. Now the doctor's schedule was full so they were going tp TRY to get me before anything els happened...Wednesday the 15th day before the surgery my left leg felt 'odd" and warm on my back calf and then I felt lump coming up on the calf...and the ONLY thing I can fathom is that we have had so many "bugs"spiders, all kinds of spiders, wasps, something had to have bitten ,stung, something in the night, because I was fine when i went to bed!!! This time they did a sonogram to make sure it was not a DVT etc which all came back fine. SO NOW I have to wait till Sept 16th, unless they have a cancellation, then i may get in sooner.
I came to Dr Blair's Office and you happened to be gone for the afternoon. So, my other option, was Urgent Care. I decided togo there rather than do nothing. They drew stat labs, and sent me to the hospital for a doppler & another test to make sure I didn't have a DT or DVT. All were CLEAR!!! Thank Goodness!
Yet, it left me with this issue, which we figured as I said something must have bitten me in the night that I did not feel.

So, they gave me a bag of IV antibiotics, and sent me with a script for another antibiotic to take every 6 hours for 10 days clindamycin. It began to get better quickly this time... but I still was left the pacemaker that was supposed to be the next day! So, I had no choice but to call, and reschedule it again.So, we try again but not until the 13th of September (a Friday).

I told Dr. Rao's Assistant I was going up there no matter WHAT!

So, if Urgent Care have not sent you those records and the labs, and doppler tests, please let them knw you want those.

I would like to have a discussion about this & as to why "suddenly" I keep getting this, and never did I have this before. AND can we do ANYTHING to try and get it under control?


Thank you,
Pam Steele

ONGOING SAGA between the PACEMAKER & CELLULITIS

WHATIS THERE SAY BUT THIS SUCKS!!!!! And I wished my BODY would get well and star well so I can get this pacemaker in and go on with my life!!!! The entire ordeal is getting way to old... I am so tired of cellulitis, infection & having to wait to get over  this mess.... This is like the 3RD time we have had to cancel and  reschedule it!!!! 

             

Friends, Illnesses, Friends passing away, A young friend (43) with Breast Cancer & the Pacemaker going in for me on the 17th.. Life

Friends passing away - and Friends with Breast Cancer (young she is 43)  and the Pacemaker for me going on on the 17th

I just found out a friend of mine I worked with right after Jason was born, and then all my life I had known her We used to see each other frequently in HEBm and I had noticed I had been missing her. She passed away over the weekend. She was the most hard working woman in the world. And funny as heck... lots of things went on in her life, but she was always still rockin' it, no matter what was happening. I know she will be missed... (Audrey Minatrea) I am sure many of you in my hometown knew her and her family. 

Then another friend of min, that in fact was my "home health nurse, that came by weekly for a good while through my insurance having them do it, and in fact I got Bella from her, My Doxie, I just found out she has breast cancer and has been fighting that only 43, I felt badly I did not find out until this morning... things have been so nuts for me, that I have missed things here especially on Facebook...so IF I miss something or happen to NOT answer PLEAE send me a private message, I don't want to miss anyone, or anything that is important. Love to you all, and prayers for all that are facing their own emotional, and/or physical, or life's illnesses and hardships....

Updates.....

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, your information an your prayers...　 I am so blessed to have family and dear friends here who listen, help, hope and care. I KNOW they are the ones with the mixed up phone numbers. I had went back and rechecked ALL of the messages I left, and not one message contained BOTH numbers that I gave her, which were correct. I DO KNOW since she (Amy) is the doctor's assistant who lines all of this up in the Dallas Hospital Heart/Pacemaker Office, that part of the issue is that they are all having to "train" on a brand new computer system, doctors included so they are "behind" on everything. I figure that is also one part of phone numbers and messages NOT getting to the proper person. My doctor told me the day I was there my first visit with him, to MAKE SURE I GET through, either AMY calls me within 4 days or so, OR I had her number that HE gave me, and that I call until I get her to answer me. That was also the holiday weekend, so between new computers, training, I know that office (which contains several different types of heart specialists, had new patients even like 7 of them the day I was there... not all for my doctor, but as I said all of them are in different heart special fields, so I figure it is one big mess, training, all those new patients, and in fact, they were supposed to give me "special towels" to wipe from head to toe with the morning before I go to the hospital but they were out of all of them there in the office - 

so I asked Amy about it yesterday, & she said she made notes and there were notes on my chart. The nurses will take care of all of that after I get to the floor. She told me if they did not mention it, then for me to remind them, and I am sure they will. Usually the nurses who are on the surgical floors are extremely good at their jobs, especially when it comes to being cautious with bacteria etc... ANYWAY, I GO IN ON THE 17TH OF THIS MONTH, so a week from this coming Monday... at 8AM at the Jack and Jack Hart Hospital at Baylor Hospital in downtown Dallas.... That is my check time so I figure they will have me lined up 1st surgery, at probably around 10AM... he told me to expect 2 hours or a bit less, if it is a 2 lead surgery, if they hav to go to a 3 lead then it may be 2 1/2 hours. 

Since I am an "early" patient I should get to go home that afternoon, if everything is doing okay. I know INFECTION of the wound itself is one of the main things they watch for, which makes sense... because I go in a week after the surgery to the office for a recheck, and even my regular heart doctor wants to see me about a week after the surgery. She had called me actually the day of my appt and told me to let them know the day I am scheduled for surgery, and that she wanted to personally see me also, once it is over with, and I can come in to her office here in town also. So, we are "set" it sounds like, and as I told Amy on the phone yesterday the sooner the better. I want this over with and done, so I can quit worrying about all of it. I am still going over information at Medtronic's website, there are so many different types of pacemaker's - just those alone, not including other types of heart devices etc... I will keep everyone informed as things get near, or if anything changes.....  :)

Pacemaker Placement, Hip Bursitis both hips severe, shoulder surgery & fear of brachial plexus issues (after reverse shoulder surgery about 5 years ago)

I had my consultation yesterday with my Cardiologist about the Holter Monitor and the low heart rate about 17 hours a day... we DID decide to go ahead with the pacemaker... everyone and everything I've read, talked to etc... even a couple of my other doctors feel it's a good idea, and "may help" some of the fatigue, the weakness in my legs, even the spider veins in my ankles, plus give me back more energy that I seem to be "losing" in the past year or so... I just can't seem to be able to keep up with the house, going to the market, and just days in general. Even though I am up and around, I seem to just be so "slow" and feel like I run out of energy much sooner that things to do... 

NOW I KNOW that some of that is the RA, the Lupus, "age" of course, the chronic pain and so forth, and there are no "guarantees" how much the pacemaker will help, but I feel it will give me back some of what I seem to have lost as far as stamina, especially outside doing my yard, flowers, and I so love being outside when the weather is nice (by the way I drove through the Cemetery yesterday and those HUGE OAK trees that looked like they just completely died that are in a row of about 10 where my Mom and Dad's graves are, THEY ARE COMING BACK OUT!!! 

I was so thrilled to see them leafing out..I think when they were building all of the new apartments right next to there, they must have "sprayed" something or did something to really knock them down hard, so when I saw each one slowly but surely with the new growth on them, I knew my Dad was happy... that is why they picked that site... Dad always loved trees, lawn work, gardening and so forth... anyway, I think wrote that I got the left hip injected Monday, and even though I have to wait (this Orthopedic doctor) won't inject them at the same time and then he makes me wait three weeks before I have the right one done... which sucks... it would be better for me to have it closer together to SO HIPS are better at the same time. But I know due to injecting the joints with corticosteroids they like to be cautious.... 

I go to the eye doctor tomorrow, I am really "past due" since I take Plaquenil, and it can cause Macular Degeneration... & I usually go yearly and I've missed I think almost 2 years..jus due to everything else, it seems I never can find the time plus I can "check them at home and do frequently with a special chart I look at. But the double vision and my vision in general has also changed again... so I "may" need new lens and HOPE NOT! All of these doctor co-pays, and then the Outpatient charge for anything I have done like the Endoscopy and now the Pacemaker, have a larger co-pay now... and of course the hospital always wants is ALL up front.... and hell my glasses if I need new lenses, the "prism" in the for the double vision makes them cost even more...plus I got ready to make the eye appt and found out my "usual" eye doctor retired! 

Luckily, I had been to another one last time, and I really liked him... and he is close, just over in Waxahachie, so at least it's not Dallas. But, I went to make the Endocrinologist appt that my PCP wanted me to see, and SHE CAN'T SEE MY TILL LIKE THE END OF JULY!!! So, I found a couple that take my insurance and they are closer to me, although still in Dallas not as far as this other woman... but I've got to get everything else "caught up"... I have to see my other Orthopedic Surgeon since we think my lumbar spine is causing a lot of my severe pain also in my hips and down my legs, plus the shoulder he replaced... it's not been "the same" and feels almost like that "brachial plexus" ball of nerves, are on fire...I can't stand to "touch my right shoulder" in many places..it was never "the greatest" but was so much better after the replacement BUT after that 2nd cervical neck surgery, (I know they had to have me lying in a very odd position) they must have had that shoulder in a position, that ever since, something is just wrong.... so he is the one that does the spinal surgeries, the shoulder replacement and so forth...