with 2nd surgery DEPRESSION IS REAL

[virginian777]

my 1st avr 4-26-12 went without any real problems and it was 12 hour surgery they replaced aortic,repaired tricups,pulmo.valve,and a bunch of other stuff. i stayed in the hospital in richmond,va the hunter holmes mcguire veterans hospital for 7 days went home had they sent home health care nurses by my house 2 times a day to check on me.my pain was mangered my dressing changed and checked.they did a super job.then when the valve stated to leak a edwards mechanical and it was desided it needed to be replaced i with the docs agreement to go with a bovine. which so far i love it.what i don't love is the extra package they put in me aka PACEMAKER. the ideal of having it in me is really driving me a little nuts.i was told by the dr that wanted to put it in that surgery had damaged my electrial signal and that i had to have one. the thing still has not healed all the way.then i read that electric tools can effect it.my hobby is woodworking i have a thousand electric tools.the va hospital used to listen to you but now they just treat your numbers.

 

[camgough]

Re: with 2nd surgery DEPRESSION IS REAL

Hi there. I had a pacemaker after my surgery too, almost 3 years ago. I have a Medtronic Adapta and have used almost every tool since. As ifs really recommended I have welders (don't know how anyways) and chain saws. I have used table saws, miter saws, hand saws, drills, etc.... No problems at all. You will get used to the pacemaker, and also check out pacemakerclub.com..... lots of good info.

Sent from my GT-I9100M using Tapatalk 2

 

[pellicle]

Hi

all depression and anxiety is real; even if others can't understand it. It doesn't have to be from the 2nd surgery, or any number in particular. I had no problems with my 2nd but my 3rd created anxiety and depression for me.

what i don't love is the extra package they put in me aka PACEMAKER. the ideal of having it in me is really driving me a little nuts

there is always something which is the focus. For me it was the loss of my strength and the change in my life. For me the answer was to focus on the things I could do and identify what *really* was a limit to what I could not do.

then i read that electric tools can effect it.my hobby is woodworking i have a thousand electric tools.

Remember it is may interfere not will interfere. I'm an electronics engineer and I can say that medical stuff has VERY tough ratings. So if you don't actually sit your pacemaker ontop of a electrical motor that is sparking away like an arc welder then there is a very good chance that totally nothing will happen.

Recall that cars have spark plugs and produce WAY more electrical discharge than the casual sparks that happen in AC or DC motors as the brushes move over the armature. I've not heard anyone say "you can't get into a car" with a pacemaker.

Basically if you observer that nothing is going askew with the pacemaker then everything probably is going OK. They make these recommendations in case people do silly things. I don't know your model of device but I'd be willing to bet that it has some sort of memory. In that case it may actually record errors it experiences. These can often be downloaded by Wireless LAN with the right gear. So if you are concerned then see if the makers can periodically examine the data from that and see if there ARE any errors.

I'd personally be surprised if your pacemaker experienced any glitch from operating a dremel or something, unless it had the brushes in the motor totally stuffed and you lay yourself with your pacemaker positioned directly ontop of the motor.

A simple rule to remember with RF interference is 1 over distance squared. This means that the power of the signal falls off at 1 / d^2. So if the interference is 1 at 1 inch, then its 1/4 at 2 inches, 1/9 at 3 inches 1/16 at 4 inches ...

so you can see that it falls of quite rapidly with distance.

 

[virginian777]

thanks guys but i still don't like it

 

[pellicle]

lots of stuff happens in ones life that you don't like. I don't like that my wife is dead. I can either suffer indefinitely or I can attempt to reoragnise my life so as to incorporate that and continue living.

 

[Ovie]

I've had one surgery for an AVR, and that was last February. I've been fighting serious depression for about 5 months now. Lost my job because of it, can't fight through it, and to be honest have lost hope. Just hoping things get better. You're not alone brother.

 

[pellicle]

I've had one surgery for an AVR, and that was last February. I've been fighting serious depression for about 5 months now. Lost my job because of it, can't fight through it, and to be honest have lost hope. Just hoping things get better. You're not alone brother.

I have no idea if this helps but in hope it will:

People feel what they feel. Sadly the meat grinder of corporate employment has no pity or humanity. It often remains hard to work for a company and retain the sense of self respect and the way of acting which you valued as a person. Humans need fulfillment and recognition. Sadly companies are built on competition. This tends to bring out the worst in the people involved in so many ways.

I am sorry to hear that you lost your job because of the health difficulties you are facing. I hope that this has not fed back into your negative feelings. I know that it commonly does.

I myself have suffered some impacts to my self worth, and to my sense of who I am. I've battled through these to see that my sense of who I am needs to be independent of the opinions of such distant and impersonal creatures as jobs or companies.

I recognize though that having a job can be essential to living and putting bread on the table.

Today I find myself grateful that I have what I have and somehow ungrateful that I don't care if I live or die. Personally if I could lay down and die I would. Actually I have wished for it. However I didn't die and despite all the things happening to me, kept living. So I take all that I can from the past which I care about and try to move into the future.

I wish you find peace in your journey (and also virginian777 too)

 

[epstns]

Virginian - As you know, I have had a pacemaker since just a few days after my valve replacement just over 2 years ago. While I'm not an avid "home shop" hobbyist, I have used many electric hand and bench tools since the pacer. I also work as an executive in a metal stamping factory. I am in the plant daily, walking and working among machines like punch presses (up to 600-ton), coil winding machines, multi-slide and four-slide forming equipment, tool and die shop equipment (including wire EDM, welders, grinders, mills, lathes, etc.) and all sorts of high-voltage electrics (up to 480 volts), as well as computers and office electronics. I am also a ham radio operator, and regularly operate a modest ham station with a short-wave radio transmitter power level of 100 watts (compared to the 1/10 watt or less for a cell phone) - ALL WITH NO ISSUES. I did check with the manufacturer of my pacemaker about the ham radio transmitter, and their tech support people knew all about what I wanted to do. They said that at the frequencies I operate, I would be safe even with many times more transmitter power than my 100 watts. Once I heard that, I just went back to my life and haven't looked back. I imagine you can do the same. If you have any doubts, make a list of the tools you want to operate, and call customer/tech support at the manufacturer of your pacemaker and ask them if you need to worry. The folks at Boston Scientific (manufacturer of my pacemaker) were most helpful and were able to put my fears to rest very quickly. I think of it this way. . . "If the manufacturer of my pacemaker says not to worry about something, I won't disagree with them. After all, they designed it."

I do have to admit to having one "issue." When I was running a small handheld random-orbital polisher, I noticed that my heart rate was racing. It turned out that the vibration of the polisher was being transmitted from my hand and arm to my chest. My pacemaker "thought" I was bouncing up and down rapidly, as in running, and it revved up my heart to allow me to run. Lesson learned - use the polisher with the other hand. No lasting or real harm, just a surprise. Looking back on the event, it was scary for about 10 minutes, until I figured it out. Now it seems funny.

 

[pellicle]

Steve

My pacemaker "thought" I was bouncing up and down rapidly, as in running, and it revved up my heart to allow me to run. Lesson learned - use the polisher with the other hand. No lasting or real harm, just a surprise. Looking back on the event, it was scary for about 10 minutes, until I figured it out. Now it seems funny.

What a strange bio-input mechanism that pacemaker has. I often wondered how they coped with regulation of various aerobic needs.

 

[epstns]

I don't think they thought their design to be "strange" but from the outside it might seem so. In reality, the pacer usually reacts to my movement, such as the rhythm of walking or running. If I run faster, the pacer speeds up my heart rate. When this falls short, though, is when the heavy activity is not accompanied by rhythmic movement - like riding a stationary bicycle, or lifting and holding heavy bags of rock for the yard. That's when the second system kicks in. This one senses my breathing rate and speeds up my heart rate when I begin to breathe heavier, such as when lifting weights. For me, the combination of the two seems to do a good job of approximating the heart's natural rhythm. Gotta love technology!

 

[pellicle]

Yes, all of your responded is why I wondered how it could cope.

I guess that its a problem I have only given passing thought to. A cousin of mine has had a pace maker fitted and I wondered how it worked to adjust his heart as his aerobic needs changed.

I had stupidly assumed some sort of biofeedback method. Seems incongruous with the system that its attempting to work with.

Unless you are sedentary

 

[epstns]

What surprises me about the pacemaker is that even though I was initially 100% dependent upon it, I never "felt" its presence (other than the lump under my skin). I guess that's another example of how we adjust to the situation. After just over 2 years with it, I can truly say that most days I do not even think about it. It is there, it is completely dependable, and I do not feel it. I do not even feel any restriction of my physical activities. I feel "normal." I actually feel better than I did in the couple of years prior to my valve surgery.

I will admit that initially I lost some sleep thinking "What would happen if this thing quit?" Then I decided that it really wouldn't matter. If it quit, so would I. I would not likely know it if it did happen. Don't worry about it because you can't control it. I've stopped worrying about other things (electonics, etc.) affecting it, too. So far, I haven't found a single thing that affects mine, so I stopped looking.