Well California has been interesting. Flew here when car died and buried it deep in the heart of Oklahoma.
Not many pictures taken before my camera had an accident and was destroyed. You just can't take them anywhere without them causing problems.
Have a few pictures and will post later when I get home to NH.
Then there was the heart check followup that my cardiologist in NH wanted me to have done. On Thursday April 14, 2011 I Saw a cardiologist in Santa Cruz, CA. I asked him to hurry with his exam as I was on my way with my luggage to go to bus station to catch bus to San Jose, CA. Then would take Amtrak train to Sacramento, CA. station. I was going to daughter's before flying out on Tues the 19th of April to my home in Manchester,NH.
He of course not caring about my agenda, told me I shouldn't be going anywhere alone. Not driving or being bussed or riding a train or even flying on Tuesday as I needed to have a pacemaker put in my heart! I tried to negotiate but he said I needed to go only to the hospital down the road 1/2 mile and be admitted. Heart surgeon who would be doing the implant was also standing next to him and the two were just so convincing, I said "OK."
I didn't see the urgency at the time. But after being admitted to the hospital, and hearing the surprise in many nurses voices about the fact that people with a pulse as slow as mine; 32 beats per min. are usually unconscious or significantly out of it. They weren't used to being joked with at this stage of heart inactivity. So I realized it was more serious than I first thought. My family visited me that night. My son and daughter-in-law and even though, I asked them not to bring my grandkids age 3 1/2 and 8 since they were not allowed to come into my room, I was glad to give them a kiss goodbye as they left for home.
That was the longest night I had experienced in a long while. Hooked up to a monitor that went ding, ding, ding every time my heartbeat fell below 35 beats per minute. And the pitch of the sound increased with a dingding dingding dingding when my heartbeat slowed below 32 beats per minute. At one point the nurse had to come and awaken me by shaking my leg in order to make me keep moving to get heartbeat up a bit. Early morning I fell asleep from just being too exhausted to stay awake and woke up after about 2 1/2 hours. My son came early before my surgery to be with me.
Needless to say, I couldn't wait for the surgery. All I wanted to do was fall asleep. With the meds given to relax me and the topical anesthesia for the procedure to be done, my wish to sleep was accomplished. Actually only slept for about an hour before was being awakened and taken back to my room for recovery.
I did not feel like being awake so just napped.
The loud dinging had stopped and I my heartrate was up to 70ish. I had been feeling weak and tired for a while so I was looking forward to having some energy again. My daughter drove down from Sacramento and picked me up Saturday morning and drove me to her house. It has been 6 days and the last two days I have taken walks, today's walk was about 2 hours! I was not even exhausted and know this is a good thing. I thank God I am healing quickly and look forward to more activities when I get home. Bowling anyone?
Have a great day today and thank you all who sent me well wishes by fb and email. Will post pics from my trip so far and will let you know when I get ready to be off on another adventure.
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