Just a quick note to let you all know I have not run off to the Caribbean…yet. We are currently in Rochester MN at an undisclosed location. I am here to get my pacemaker and at least one of the leads for it replaced. Back in January of this year, my pacer reached the end of it’s productive life. When this happens, it still has around 90 days left before it goes caput for good.
Another thing I just learned a few days ago is that as it nears it’s final end, it goes into a kind of “preservation mode”, which means it is still working, but not to the full ability that it normally does. I was actually grateful to hear that, because for the past month or 2, I have really started to feel my physical stamina go downhill.
It has gotten to the point where, on bad days, I cannot even walk 100 feet on level ground without having to stop and catch my breath. So it was wonderful news to know that the pacemaker going into preservation mode and one of my leads being shot is the reason for my decline in health and not that my poor heart was in decline.
I have some tests to do tomorrow and Tuesday and then Wednesday they will be doing the surgery. The surgery is really a cakewalk when it comes to affairs of the heart. I have obviously already been through the insertion of the unit, but also back around 5 years ago, I had that first unit replaced because its battery was getting low.
I doubt it will be outpatient like the first replacement was, but who knows, it just might be. The Dr I had a consult with over the phone last Friday said that we would be able to leave Rochester and head home as long as there were no “surprises”. So this is almost a mini-getaway for us, rather than some big worrisome surgery.
Hope you all are surviving the first week of no-snowmobiling season. Our weeks weather was kind of messy, with some mixed precip on Monday and again on Friday. Seems like old Ma Nature is in no hurry to commence with the meltdown in any real fashion. I suppose the slow-crawl speed is good for chipping away at the large amount of snow still on the ground, preventing flooding, but now that snowmobile season is over, the vast majority of the folks in the Keweenaw are ready to see some green.
I will close for this go-around, have a great week ahead and I will talk to you all next Sunday!
Good Night From the Keweenaw..
–JD
