A Week of Waiting (or how to keep the Beat)

I was relaxing on tuesday when a series of events happened that told me I needed to get my pacemaker checked as my heart rate was Very low (32bpm) I checked into the ER was admitted and spent the rest of the week waiting as 3 different sets of doctors worked out putting a new one in. I may not have mentioned this before, but yes, I have a pacemaker. When I underwent open heart surgery, they cut the electrical connection between the top and bottom of my heart ( the perkunjie fibers) necessitating a pacemaker. I shoulda brought a book!

The actual procedure took about an hour and a half but it was 2 days before they did it. I don't mind missing a little work (my Lt. does 'tho) and now that I've spent the first night sleeping in my own bed my shoulder has a baseball-sized swelling that hurts like the Dickens & of course, being the Genius I am I forgot to ask for Pain Relief. Thank G*d I have some APAP/Codene from dental work!

Observations:
-Most hospital personnel don't have much of a sense of Humor. I had a white board across from me with the date the words: Your Nurse is________ and Your Care Partner is______ of course, the first chance I got I filled in the blanks with Elsewhere & Busy, Starsky & Hutch, Having a Moment & Taking a Break, etc... Each & every time one of them noticed, they immediately erased it!

- TV and Cable suck ( to be honest, I had that opinion going in)

- Most hospital personnel (other than the Doctor) don't care if you're sleeping, it's 4am etc... if they have to get an EKG they won't bother themselves to do it while you are awake! I DON'T like being awakened for blood work- come when I'm conscious!

-Most of the Doctors I saw were different ones from the practice, leading me to believe that saying you have a doctor is misleading. Although they know why you are there and what you need, I can't help but get the Impersonal feeling.

Anyway, I'm going to take a couple of days off, relax and hope the swelling goes down. Hope you are ALL doing better then I am!