Advice On Women Getting A Pacemaker
posted on 08/22/2009
We women are so different from men. As we develop these changes are more apparent than bodily changes, changes of life, or changes in our life style. While men and women are more likely to die of SCD, Sudden Cardiac Death, it is woman who die often because their family doctor, or cardiologist does not take into account these wide variances in how we grow, how we live, how dramatic it is to bear a child to one's heart, and then how we age. Today this advice is for those friends who like I are baby boomers, are woman, past the anxious teenage years that can disrupt even heart rhythm, past the weight of the child bearing years, have lived through PMS, survived Menopause (with or without hormone replacement therapy), survived all life's changes with or without anti anxiety agents or anti depressants. For friends who cope with "arrhythmia", a heart disease that causes one third of the deaths in women in the United States.
A disease that can be made worse in some by anti-depressants, or hormonal replacement therapy. A disease of the heart made three times more deadly in women by the abuse of alcohol. Arrhythmia responds well to a treatment out of a futuristic movie. The heart Pacemaker, or defibrillator, can wire a woman for life.
The most often asked questions are will the Pacemaker stop working, will I die if using a microwave oven, and can a strike of lightning recharge the
Pacemaker's battery. Pacemakers do not stop working if leads can be worn or torn, or if the housing can be displaced, even if the battery runs "low" the Pace Maker will not stop. Pacemakers are designed, engineered to overcome these challenges and anyone with a Pacemaker will soon seek medical advice as the effects are quite apparent as decreased or increased heart rhythms, as even seemingly shutting down, or even discomfort/pain at the site. At www.RightHealth.com/search/arrythmisinwomen you can find a list of those things to avoid if you are that modern woman wired for life. And yes a lightning strike can recharge the long life of a Pacemakers Battery but it is not suggested. Those seeking support and information or needing the opportunity to "chat" with other women with Pacemakers can go to www.wired4life.net.
Preparing for the implantation of a Pacemaker is no different than preparing for any surgery not considered major. Try to reduce your cholesterol, increase your exercise in moderate means. Consider swimming, or increasing your walking. Do everything slowly and surely.
Reduce your weight even if only by ten or twenty pounds. Eat health wise, and reduce your tobacco use. Ask your physician about these plans as well as what medications you currently take, including over the counter medications. If you drink more than three drinks a day the thought of a Pacemaker should make true the First Step. "One day at a time."
The day of a Pacemaker insertion can be frightening. Yes you go to a hospital. The good news, or bad news, is you will be awake for the procedure. The sedative will relax you, site anesthesia will help you cope with the incisions, and in just a very few moments the cardiologist will be done and the sedative will kick in and you will sleep like a baby to awake to the fact it is done. Depending upon your age, health, emotional well being or support systems you will leave the hospital on average in two to five days. You will face adjustments to the Pacemaker, maybe more ECG's. Will learn that it takes a few moments of exertion to bring your Pacemaker up to speed, but once there you are comfortable mall walking or swimming. In four to six weeks you should be fully recovered.
The website, www.hearthealthy.org can give you a full explanation of what to expect, what not to fear, and an exclamation of the benefits you will heap wired for life. And soon you will be not wired to go, but wired for a long and full life, of all the misadventures you still follow your friends after. One beat at a time.
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