This morning, I received a bit of a fright. I knew that my pacemaker was going to transmit last night. Each month it connects via cell phone to the computers at the cardiologist’s office and uploads all the data from the previous month. The following day, the office calls to give me a report.
That’s where the bit of fright came in. This morning, when I answered the phone, I asked how the transmission came out. I was told, “Really good. As usual, your leads are stable, fluids levels are perfect, and you had no recorded incidents. You have six months left on your battery.”
I said, “Six?!” She said, ‘Yes. Six months left on your battery.” I said, “But, last month, I had seventeen months left. What happened to ten months?!” There was a pause and then she said, “No, not six. Sixteen. I didn’t see the one in front of the six.”
Phew.
I told her that she was putting a bad mojo on my cruise schedule. Six months would make me cancel my transatlantic this year. We both started laughing because, after all, a person has to set important dates and times in his or her life and cruises are definitely one of the things that keeps me going.
So, it was a good phone call after all, everything is fine, and I have sixteen months before the end-of-life on my present pacemaker battery which means, probably about fourteen months to my next surgery to replace units.
