Planning a Trip After Fixing a Heart – Part 2

I didn’t realize how much my life would change once Dennis got his defibrillator/optimizer implanted.  I would say though, Dennis’ life has changed much more than mine.  He is off the majority of the meds he was on.  He doesn’t get fatigued and fall asleep as soon as he hits a chair.  He is walking 2+ miles in the neighborhood.  He is not yet hiking on the mountain.  With the terrain so rocky, it is best the incision heal completely before he takes those paths.  

I, on the other hand, no longer look at that external defibrillator with fear and loathing!  I cannot see the one inside of him, which makes me more comfortable!  I have gone from helping him walk and giving IV meds last year when he had the staph infection in his knee.  I’m not rushing him to the hospital (twice last year) because he couldn’t breathe.  I’m not worrying every time he walks out the door to walk the dog.  

I am adjusting from anxious to non-anxious.  I didn’t realize that adjustment takes a while.  I guess I’ve been on high alert for so long, that those anxious feelings don’t just disappear.  I am working on the adjustment because I love the change, and worrying was not in my previous nature (before 2024).

Thank you all for your prayers for Dennis as he faced this procedure.  Who knew that one can have such a turnaround because a little electronic device now sitting in a chest?  Crazy, huh?  Just 10 years ago, there was not a device that strengthened a heart to pump more efficiently.  There wasn’t much one could do  for congestive heart failure.  It was watch and control fluid which is done by weighing daily.  Then when the diuretics weren’t sufficient and the person has trouble breathing, it was rush to the emergency room to be admitted to the hospital.  That worked and the hospital was able to remove the fluids by strong IV diuretics, but each episode weakens the heart.  The heart starts enlarging and the muscle weakens.

We have hope.  Don’t get me wrong.  This won’t save his life forever.  We all die sometime, but for now this device can give more years to life.  This device looked so amazing that I asked the doctor what one dies of since the heart heals.  He laughed and said there are so many things in our body that can go wrong.  Yes, we are mortal.  But for now, we have the hope of more time, but not just time, more quality of time, and that is what is so important.

So, now we are planning our summer getaway to the midwest.  We will be gone about a month, and we will come home to the summer heat of Arizona.  There is so much we are grateful for — looks like 2025 will be much better than 2024!