Heart pacemaker implant

DWalt

DWalt

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Today my wife went into the hospital for a pacemaker replacement. She has depended on a pacemaker to stay alive for over 20 years, but the batteries do eventually run down. This is her third implant. She was admitted at eleven this morning and I took her home at three. She has completely recovered from the surgery and we even went out to eat tonight. The interesting thing is how much more advanced pacemakers have become. This one was much smaller than the first two, and it has a bedside communicator that monitors the operation of the pacemaker daily and periodically collects and sends the data direct to her cardiologist. It seems to be a Bluetooth connection from the pacemaker to the communicator and from it, a wireless connection to the cardiologist's computer. I suspect there is a lot of AI in there somewhere. Before, she had to use a land line telephone approximately quarterly plus a couple of visits to the cardiologist every year. The battery on this one should be good for close to twenty years. Amazing what is going on in medicine. Before pacemakers, far more people with her heart condition have died young.
 
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Good news. My first ICD lasted 8 years. Two weeks ago my EPO scan puts me at 2 years in with 5 years remaining on my present one. All monitoring is done by Wi-Fi.

I am totally pacemaker dependent as my heart will never beat on its own again.

My dad's pacemaker looked like a pack of cigarettes stuffed under the skin and he also used the magnetic degaussing ring attached to his wall phone.

We've come far, pilgrim.
 
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The first pacemaker I saw was about the size of a hockey puck. But that was 50 years ago. I didn't see the new one, was told it is about 1.5" diameter, less than a half inch thick. But I suppose the size depends on the manufacturer. This one was from Boston Scientific. Likewise, my wife is 100% dependent on having the pacemaker. She worries about EMPs.
 
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Have 2 yrs left on mine, it runs 98% of the time. I think it's a satellite connection, and the replacement uses the original wire into the heart.
 
My wife's wires are still original from her first implant over 20 years ago. Tests showed they were still OK so they were not replaced. I have to assume the doctor knows what he is doing. I don't really know how the data is transferred to the cardiologist, I assume it is by something wireless like cell phone technology.
 
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This device monitors and regularly "interrogates" my ICD. It sends the info through the ether to a company called Pacemate in Florida that analyzes and interprets the data. The data can then be accessed by my EPO.

If anything irregular is detected they will notify my EPO and text me as to what set the alarm off.

Last year it detected some fluid built up around my heart and had my doctor order Lasix for me. Without being "interrogated" I would not have known.

Yay science!

 
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Yes, modern medicine will continue to progress as long as the politics and government keep their distance. I'm glad you and the wife can enjoy life together because of it.
 
My 98yo MIL just had her 3rd pacemaker installed and it, too, is one of the newer versions which communicates remotely. We call her the "Energizer Bunny"...
 
Daymn!!!!!!! Next thing ya know those things will be able to pick up Sirius!!
Seriously though the advances in cardiac care are remarkable. My brother in law would be alive and kicking today if he had the technology available now
 
DWalt said:
Today my wife went into the hospital for a pacemaker replacement. She has depended on a pacemaker to stay alive for over 20 years, but the batteries do eventually run down. This is her third implant. She was admitted at eleven this morning and I took her home at three. She has completely recovered from the surgery and we even went out to eat tonight. The interesting thing is how much more advanced pacemakers have become. This one was much smaller than the first two, and it has a bedside communicator that monitors the operation of the pacemaker daily and periodically collects and sends the data direct to her cardiologist. Amazing what is going on in medicine. Before pacemakers, far more people with her heart condition have died young.
Click to expand...

DWalt said:
The first pacemaker I saw was about the size of a hockey puck. But that was 50 years ago. I didn't see the new one, was told it is about 1.5" diameter, less than a half inch thick. But I suppose the size depends on the manufacturer. This one was from Boston Scientific. Likewise, my wife is 100% dependent on having the pacemaker. She worries about EMPs.
Click to expand...
I was a Technical Service Rep/ Cardiac Pacing Specialist for 5 years, for Medtronic, and attended pacemaker implants as well as helping the cardiologists treating the patients in office followup clinics. It amazed me how fast the technology advanced in those five years from 1989 to 1995; they went from the "hockey puck" to something the size of 3 quarters stacked on each other and the smaller one had diagnostic features and programmability the big one didn't have. You could cut one of the big ones open and the circuitry had transistors, capacitors and diodes soldered to a board and it looked like a transistor radio. The newer ones were just a tiny printed circuit with a battery a quarter or less the size of the hocky puck, which was about half battery. I helped remove and replace several of the nuclear-powered hockey pucks, they used a Plutonium power source. It was realized that patients benefitted from replacements every 5-7 years or so to get better technology, the Plutonium pacemakers could last for 20 years or so but were only made for a few years. We (the manufacturers) used a term "end of life" for when the battery was getting low and the unit needed replacement. I tried to avoid using the phrase in front of patients for obvious reasons. They thought we meant the end of THEIR life and not the pacemaker.

Rustyt1953 said:
This is my present one. It is about the size of an Oreo.

Click to expand...
You're not supposed to pull them out and show them off. Put it back, quick! :D:D:D
 
Sirius? Are you serious about that? Serius is dying a slow death from streaming apps.

That aside, if I have a pacemaker it will have to have Bluetooth. I don't know why, but everything seems to have it these days. My toothbrush has Bluetooth and I have a pair of heated socks that also have it.

More seriously, a friend turned 80 last spring and shortly thereafter the battery in his pacemaker gasped it's last breath. He had it replaced and feels much better. He also noted how much less of a process it is to have one implanted. If possible, they reuse the same wires, so it's really simple.



CAJUNLAWYER said:
Daymn!!!!!!! Next thing ya know those things will be able to pick up Sirius!!
Seriously though the advances in cardiac care are remarkable. My brother in law would be alive and kicking today if he had the technology available now
Click to expand...
 
Rustyt1953 said:
This device monitors and regularly "interrogates" my ICD. It sends the info through the ether to a company called Pacemate in Florida that analyzes and interprets the data. The data can then be accessed by my EPO.

If anything irregular is detected they will notify my EPO and text me as to what set the alarm off.

Last year it detected some fluid built up around my heart and had my doctor order Lasix for me. Without being "interrogated" I would not have known.

Yay science!

Click to expand...
That looks like the same device my wife now has, last night was the first time it was used. When she was first admitted, there was a Boston Sci tech rep who came into the room and hooked her up to some monitor to do tests prior to the implantation. After the new pacemaker was implanted, a different Boston Sci tech rep came in to explain the communication device and he set it up to make sure it was working properly. Wife seems to be completely back to normal this morning.

One good thing about living in San Antonio is the presence of a major medical center and the UT medical school that is probably the equal of anywhere else in the country, every type of specialist from A to Z is here.
 
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