Thursday, May 14, 2009

My sister has Heart Block

My younger sister had surgery to implant a dual lead pacemaker two days ago.  She was recently diagnosed with class 2 Heart Block.  The surgery went well and I even spoke with her last night and she sounded bright and cheery.

I am so grateful, but this episode has brought back a lot of my own memories I thought I had put to rest.  I was with her on the table in my mind during her surgery.  It was very surreal.

My heart block was diagnosed 6 years ago and mine is class 3, or complete Heart Block.  This preceeded my diagnosis of Heart Failure by approximately one year.

I hope that does not happen to my sister.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Decision

I went to my heart failure specialst recently and he declared that I have been stable for one year now.  This is sort of a big deal because in the last five years, I have not been stable very often.

Others with heart failure will tell you their story is the same.

I have decided as a result to try to get at least one hip replaced this year, or at least ry to do so before the end of the year.  I probably need both, but I was told 15 months ago that the right one needed to be done.