College Dude's medical stuff

College Dude was born with a heart defect...transposition of the great arteries or arterial transposition. Wikipedia has a decent explanation of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposition_of_the_great_arteries

He had repair surgery at 5 months and we were told that a pacemaker would be in his future. That future occurred when he was 16. It went fairly smoothly...rough time coming out of anesthesia and pulled one of the leads out. They had to go back in and reinsert it, so they are not allowed to use that drug this time.(I am She Who Will Be Obeyed in this instance. It was not fun, but the hospital in CO Springs was good. (He was in pediatrics & a Dr. brought his kids around to reverse trick or treat and drop off goodies, & a radio station came by too) I slept there and Cabinet Man stayed at the hotel. I went back at one point and showered & slept but we got a snowstorm the 3rd day so I toughed it out. Had a migraine & didn't take my meds so I had to get it changed to a pharmacy down there. Thank God for Walgreen's.

It's time for a new pacemaker, so on 4/28, he'll go down and have it done...OUTPATIENT. I'm still a little freaky about it, but it is relatively 'easy'...the current leads appear to be fine, so they will just disconnect the leads, put the new one in and reconnect the leads. I am so grateful that we do NOT have nationalized healthcare. With nationalized healthcare, it would not have been scheduled so quickly. He would have to wait until the battery actually failed before it would be replaced. We have the 'luxury' of scheduling it after his exam, but within the 'window' the surgeon feels is safe.

Ick factor? The surgeon told him that they can clean it up and he can have it engraved. ICK! I told him it would be in his Christmas stocking. Exactly how do you go about finding someone to engrave it? If you were a jeweler, what would you think if someone walked in and asked you to engrave an electronic device that had recently been in SOMEONE'S body? Ew. I'm tempted to do it just to see the jeweler's face. I'm sorta evil like that. But I won't as I am also considerate like that. Besides, I know my mom would find out and kill me. CD made the point that at this rate, if he were to get it engraved, when he finally dies in 60 years or so, his heirs will open a drawer and see it full of engraved pacemakers. You can only use so many paperweights, and you can't exactly give them away....