Happy Pacemaker Anniversary to me!!

41 years ago today I got my first permanent pacemaker implanted for complete congenital heart block. I was 17 yrs old and weighed all ove 85 pounds. I was a very sick girl as my heart rate was only 20 beats per minute and I was blacking out very often. I lived 6 hours from Winnipeg so not easy to get back there quickly, there was no life flight back in 1967.

My first pacer was very big (the size of a hockey puck) and I was very small so the doctor made a pocket under my left arm to tuck it in the muscle.

This is one of my first pacemakers, my very first was covered in the expoxy type of stuff you see on the top right hand side. To insert this pacemaker, the doctors opened my chest and sewed the leads directly onto the ventricle of my heart. It was a huge surgery and when they completed it, I got the hiccups that would not stop so they had to go back in and shorten the leads as they were touching my diaphragm.

As much as I was happy to receive a pacer and that my life would be saved, my body had other ideas and I rejected the pacemaker for over a year. I had several bouts of pericarditis, ambulance rides, shots and PAIN!!! I prayed to die many times that year but GOD had other plans for me thankfully.

I have had many pacemakers over the years and thankfully they are getting much smaller and last alot longer. My first four or five lasted about a year, some less.

Some of my pacers over the 41 years, I think I am on number 14 or 15 now, maybe more as I have lost count over the years. The one I have now is similar to the one on the left on the bottom row. It is computerized and will last approx. 8 - 10 years. I have about a year left on it.

A comparison look from then and now.....I should have taken a photo to show the thickness.

Not my x-ray, mine has way more junk showing as old leads just get capped off and left there but this will give you an idea where it sits in the body. I think mine has dropped over the years as it is lower in the chest wall.

I thank GOD every day for this foreign piece of equipment as without it, I would not be alive to tell you about it. 41 years and counting......