Daddy had a defibrillator and a pacemaker combo thing "installed" yesterday. It makes for a really long day when they tell you to be there at seven but don't take you back for surgery until eleven. And then we didn't get up into his room until after four or so to see him after recovery.
Mary and I stayed until we saw him in his room and made sure that he had eaten his lunch. Then we left.
At two this morning, Mama calls me and says the hospital has called, and Daddy is having trouble and wants her there. Then they call back and tell her he wants to be sure that she calls us. She called me, I called Mary. I drove Mama over, and Mary met us there. It has been a very long day with a definitely heinous morning.
Apparently around 1:30 this morning, Daddy sat on the edge of the bed to pee and began being kicked in the chest by his defibrillator. He was shocked 13 times in about thirty minutes. THIRTEEN times. Needless to say there was pee all over the floor.
The only way they could get the debrillator to stop was to slap a huge magnet on his chest just over the mechanism. And then start pushing meds that would slow his heart down. Apparently, just resting - or rather just peeing - caused his heart rate to shoot up to 180 beats per minute. Crap like that can blow your heart up - or make it seize up - or just hurt it really, really badly.
So we got there at 2:00 and waited for the doctor. Mama slept in the recliner in his room, and Mary and I went out into the waiting areas to try to cat nap on couches and chairs. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't all that great either. I fell asleep and woke up to find Mary gone - she had gone to find a couch she could stretch out on. Then we began calling subs and such - this was 5:30 - 6:00. To kill time, we moved our cars from the North 40 out front to the parking lot closer to the Heart Center - I think I almost killed my Mama by walking her from the front of the building, but she didn't want to be pushed.
Anywho, the doctor finally came in around 8:00. He said this is amazingly the first time he has ever seen anything like this. The 24 hour harness recording they did on Daddy weeks ago gave no signs that his heart would race like that at rest, so they are going in tomorrow to oblate (a fancy word for close by burning) a node in his heart that should help to keep his rate down. They have also set dad's mechanism to go off when his heart rate goes over 200 beats per minute - it had been set at 180. That was the cool part - seeing the whole mechanism they use to send messages to the defib. And Mama and Daddy will be getting this thing they plug into the phone line that will keep Dr. Frazier's office "in touch" with the pacemaker/defibrillator. Amazing.
So needless to say I got Mama back to Washington and have spent the majority of the rest of the day sleeping off one sick headache. Luckily Brent was gone today delivering Bella (the dachshund we were fostering) to her new home, so it was very quiet.
And now for the highlight of the day - Mama asked the nurses if they were using dirty syringes - Jesus God how embarassing . . .
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