Anyway, on Monday, December 28, they called Greg's mom from the cardiologist's office. The 30-day heart monitor she was wearing did not look good. They sent her to the ER. On Wednesday, December 30, she had a pacemaker installed. She began having pain in the area under her left breast that evening. She had one or two bad episodes of pain every day. She would be moaning with tears running down her face. They had to give her a Darvocet every time. They did an x-ray to see if the wires to the pacemaker were all in place. They also did two cat scans. Everything looked fine.
On Saturday, a representative from Medtronics, the pacemaker company, came in to test her pacemaker. She was having a pain episode at that time. He seemed very concerned about the situation and said he'd never seen anything like it. Still, he said her pacemaker was fine. He called and talked to the cardiologist on call who later came and examined her. He told us the pain was not caused by the pacemaker and was coming from "the outside". We had no experience with pacemakers, so we assumed that they had just yanked her around while placing it and pulled muscles that were having spasms. She went home to Jeff and Kay's since she was not supposed to be by herself for 4 weeks.
On Sunday night, she came to our house since everyone is at work at Jeff & Kay's during the week. She continued to have these pain episodes as well as a very strong heartbeat that you could feel with your hand in the same place. By Wednesday, I decided that this should be better by now. It had been a week after the surgery. So, I called the cardiologist's office and explained to the nurse what was going on. She said to bring Colleen in.
When we got there, she used the same machine to test the pacemaker that the Medtronics rep had used on Saturday. However, she found that the ventricular lead was not working. The pacemaker then operates at a very high voltage trying to make the lead work and this was causing her diaphragm to spasm. Now, why didn't the guy find this on Saturday? He also mentioned that someone was supposed to have checked her pacemaker on 12/31. No one did. He was the first person we saw, and that was on 1/2. Greg is furious, to say the least. She has to go in tomorrow and have this lead repositioned. Another surgery, anesthesia, etc. We will NOT leave the hospital this time until it is right. Mark my words!
That's what's been going on here - in addition to starting school last Monday. This week, we'll hopefully get Gran's problem taken care of. Then on Friday, Gerren and Chase are attending the Disciple Now conference at Cornerstone. Greg, Carys, and I are taking Landon to Patrick AFB for the Special Activities Selection Board for CAP. You must go before this board in order to participate in many of the national activities that take place during the summer for CAP. Greg got a free weekend at a Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach for Christmas from the Hampton where he works. So, we're taking advantage of it.
5 comments:
Hopefully, the pacemaker situation will be resolved quickly!
You have been very busy. I hope Greg's mother is feeling better now and the problem is resolved.
How horrible.
Poor woman. Are things better now?
Dorothy, the pain caused by the pacemaker was fixed in the second surgery. But she has still been having dizzy spells and passing out, which was what the pacemaker was supposed to fix. She also had to have a biopsy on a nodule they found on her thyroid. I guess health issues are to be expected at this age. :(
Oh my goodness, Linda, poor Gran. I'm praying for her health and a quick resolution...
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