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 :)