Tuesday 8th May 2012

Murray got the defibrilator inserted yesterday. He was told the operation would be at 9am or 2pm. He ended up going in at 3pm and it took over 2 hours for him to come back to the ward. He has a bit of a bulge under his left collarbone where it was inserted and it looks like a cut about 6 cm long. He was heavily sedated at the end of the operation so that they could simulate a cardiac attack and see if the defibrilator worked itself. Apparently all went well. Due to all the sedation he was out of it last night and today doesn't remember who was there or asking me the same questions over and over! The defibrilator has been programmed to only kick in if the heart stops - hopefully it is never needed, but it's good to know he has his mini ambulance on standby all the time. There is a chance he could have another episode of fainting and if this happens I need to get him to the hospital again. Then they will have all the data from the defibrilator to know how to program it against any future episodes. The reason why they don't program it now is so that it doesn't kick in unnecessarily. He is taking a beta blocker tablet and hopefully this will stop any further episodes happening. He has to see our GP next week to get the stitches out and then see the specialist 6 weeks later. As the condition is something genetic, we need to arrange for the kids to get tested to make sure they are showing no signs of the heart wall thickening. Also Murray's brother and sisters will need to get tested. They will need to have tests, I think, every 5 years to make sure the condition isn't developing. The poor kids are screwed with the genetics both sides of our family are passing on!!!! (parkinson's and heart conditions). Hopefully they get the all clear. Murray was discharged this morning into my care. He needs to recuperate for the rest of the week and should be able to go back to work next Monday. Whilst he can't do any strenous sports or repetitive physical activities (such as shovelling dirt), he should be able to fully settle back into normal activities (including Golf) after 6 weeks. I think Murray has managed to take another 10 years off my life due to stress!! but I'm glad we caught the problem and he's still around to annoy me :)

Thursday 3rd May 2012

Murray had the heart MRI at around 12.30pm today. We waited for the specialist to come and see us with the results at about 5.30pm. His results show scarring of the heart so he will definitely be getting an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The operation was scheduled for 9am tomorrow (Friday) however due to a horrible accident his operation will be postponed to Monday. A Canberra hospital staff member (part of the cardiac team) was killed at around 5pm as she crossed the road outside the hospital. Another colleague was injured but is in a stable condition. Apparently a car ran a red light and knocked the pedestrians over. Dr Tan was obviously upset when he was telling us about his staff member who had worked at the hospital for 15 years and who has 4 children. He said that his team would be too distraught to operate tomorrow (which is totally understandable). So Murray sits and waits a bit longer. He will have been in hospital for 2 weeks from midnight Friday. The operation is fairly straight forward, however once inserted they will actually test the defibrilator by stopping his heart (scary but obviously necessary). He should be allowed home the next day and then needs about a week to recuperate. He won't be able to fully lift his arms above his head for about 6 weeks (so no golf for a while!), this is to allow the wires to embed properly in the heart muscle. I'll update early next week to let you know how the operation goes.

Tuesday 1st May 2012

A quick update on Murray. He remains sat in hospital absolutely going stir crazy! We found out that if the MRI was to be done in the private hospitals it would mean waiting till at least next week till the operators are back from leave. Dr Tan has managed to get a booking at Canberra Hospital for Thursday. It would again appear that only one doctor can do this specialised Heart MRI, he has just become the Director of Medicine at the hospital and it is very hard to get a booking for this procedure. Anyway hopefully it will go ahead on Thursday and this test should confirm the diagnosis of Hypertropic Cardiomyopathy. Dr Tan told Murray today that if it's decided to go ahead with inserting the defibrilator this could possibly happen on Friday. So Murray is fully equipped with lots of movies and TV downloads to keep him occupied for a bit longer! I'll update once we hear any further news.