|
but it's done under conscious sedation, meaning you'll be able to sleep through most of it, waking up only when they need to ask a question.
You'll be given pills the morning of the surgery with a sip of water. When you're nice and groggy, you'll be wheeled into the EPS lab on a stretcher. You'll get some numbing shots (they're not bad) where the wires will be inserted and later where the battery pack/controller will be placed. The whole thing generally takes less than an hour and a half.
Once you have it, you'll be able to feel the controller under the muscle if you go looking for it, but nobody else will know it's there.
The internal defib. is just extra insurance. They will control whatever your rhythm problem is with drugs. Depending on the rhythm, the defib. can either pace you out of it or deliver a countershock to stop it completely. The shock is usually described as getting a hard punch and means you need to come in and get your drugs evaluated or the unit interrogated and reprogrammed, something that is done externally. Some people will be able to feel a tingle if they're holding on to you when it fires. I never felt that and I've taken care of a lot of folks while those things were going off.
The internal defibrillator is an insurance program that allows you to survive a lethal arrhythmia outside the hospital. Take it if you can get it. It doesn't insure immortality, but it can buy you years.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
