Here We are Again

 The last time we posted on this blog, Lindsey received the okay to return home after the placement of her pacemaker. No news is good news, so we have all been doing well-mostly.  Jason would have something witty and funny to say, but since he is presently buried past his head in tax returns, my update will have to do.   

Lindsey has done well with her pacemaker, however, as her heart has become more dependent on her device some issues have surfaced.  The amount of time that her heart has been dependent on her pacemaker went from 23% to 88% of the time.  She started having episodes of lightheadedness and feeling her heart rate drop around the end of December.  These symptoms were happening about once-twice a week and have steadily increased to daily.  We came to California for some testing at the beginning of February where they found her pacemaker was "oversensing." This means, that the pacemaker would think the heart gave a beat and would not fire then fire on the next beat.  This cuts her heart rate in half, putting her back to feeling the heart block that she felt when all this started last May. This was concerning to our electrophysiology/transplant doctors and they gave us a couple options. The first, do nothing and just live with it like this (not an option she wanted) and second, change the position of the lead and switch out the pacemaker device to a different manufacturer.  After discussing these options with the team, they decided to do the second option.  

This brings us to today.  Lindsey went in for surgery today at 11:30AM. The surgery went well, the surgeon was able to change the position of the lead and switch out the pacemaker device to a different one.  She will recover in the hospital, hopefully, be overnight, then released tomorrow if all goes well.  We will stay in the area for another week and a half for her post-op appointment and to be close in case there is an emergency.  Unfortunately, we will not know if the surgery was successful until she recovers enough that they can run an exercise test on her.  I have asked, "What option do we have if this doesn't work?" but I haven't received a straight answer.  It appears this is the first time they have seen this and the doctors are scratching their heads as well. They also did Lindsey's biopsy while she was under for surgery, and her pressures and coronary arteries all looked good. We will know the results tomorrow. We are grateful for this wonderful place and the doctors and nurses that care so much for our children. 

Next week we will fly Gage down while we are waiting for Lindsey's recovery.  He will have his biopsy and clinic appointments saving us a trip back in a couple weeks.  This will be his 5th anniversary!! I can't believe how fast time has gone.  

I will add some pictures later, but the surgery went well. The surgeon was able to move her lead and change her pacemaker device.  She is recovering well and will have an overnight stay in the hospital for monitoring and pain management.