Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/07/14

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] OT My night and three days in the hospital
From: gerry.walden at me.com (Gerry Walden)
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:04:34 +0100
References: <p0624081fcc277e8ca0f9@[192.168.1.103]>

Here is to a speedy recovery Herbert, and the wish that you will be back 
behind the camera quickly.

Gerry

Gerry Walden
+44 (0)23 8046 3076 or
+44 (0)797 287 7932
www.gwpics.com

On 14 Jul 2012, at 21:54, Herbert Kanner wrote:

> Sorry, no photographs. I am the proud owner of a brand new pacemaker. Here 
> is the story:
> 
> Ever since April, I have been having some bad days where walking a block 
> was a problem; I'd get painfully out of breath. The evening that I met 
> Richard Man at a gallery was the third of three consecutive days when this 
> problem got severe--I barely managed to stagger from my car a block to the 
> gallery, though by the time I had been there for a few minutes, I felt 
> fully ok.
> 
> The following Monday morning, I saw my pulmonologist on a scheduled 
> appointment. (Now I have to decide whether to fire him for extreme 
> inattention to a possibly dangerous situation.) I described the increase 
> in my symptoms in detail. One of them was missed heartbeats. It started 
> months before, when I noticed that after activity, I would lose one 
> heartbeat out of ten. I had already mentioned this to the cardiologist and 
> got no reaction; an internet search indicated that if not accompanied by 
> chest pains, not to worry. But it had worsened to where, after any moving 
> around, it got to where, after two beats it would skip one, then maybe 
> after a bit, three beats then skip one.
> 
> Well, especially since it could very well have been partially due to a 
> side effect from a new drug he had prescribed, he wrote out an order for 
> blood tests and for me to come back the next morning. When I took the 
> order to a lab, they pointed out that he had forgotten to put his name on 
> it (!!!!!) and they had to call him on his cell phone to get authorization.
> 
> The next morning, July 10, he looked it over, saw anemia--again yet 
> another one of the myriad side effects of this drug--suggested stopping it 
> for two weeks and seeing him them. What bothers me is that he was not in 
> the least alarmed.
> 
> I had a standing appointment for an annual physical that very afternoon, 
> did not feel up to it and phoned to cancel it. About an hour or so after 
> that, I decided that I was getting scared, called back, told what was 
> going on, and the doctor's nurse said to come in--that they'd fit me in 
> and would do an EKG.
> 
> I cooled my heels for a while after the EKG. The doctor was not happy with 
> it and took it to a cardiologist, came back and told me that sending me 
> home was too risky and that she had arranged for me to go right to the 
> emergency room. I phoned my wife, who had a bit of trouble absorbing this 
> startling info in a hurry over the telephone, but eventually got it and 
> ferried me there--I had an ok on leaving my own car at the doctor's 
> parking lot.
> 
> After a relatively short time, considering that it was an emergency room 
> at Stanford Hospital, they told me that they were admitting me to the 
> hospital. That was Tuesday night. All day Wednesday, the 
> electro-cardiologists were trying to make up there mind whether or not I 
> should get a pacemaker. I wound up making the decision for them. Around 
> noon on Wednesday, my wife was visiting while I was eating lunch--hospital 
> food has sure improved--and just as I leaned forward to pick up a shrimp 
> by the tail and bring it to my mouth, I felt dizzy for just two or three 
> seconds. Thought nothing of it. Didn't even remember that I was supposed 
> to tell the nurse if I got dizzy--got mildly chewed out for it later. 
> Early that evening a cardiologist walked in with a printout in his hand, 
> asked: "Were you dizzy today?" showed me a monitor printout that indicated 
> that my heart had stopped for about six seconds. He said: "You need a 
> pacemaker".
> 
> One was installed the very next morning. The amazing thing is that it's 
> all done with local anesthetics and extremely mild sedation. The procedure 
> took about an hour. I didn't get out until late the next afternoon because 
> it took all day to arrange a couple of ten minute procedures: an x-ray to 
> make sure the pacemaker wires were where they should be, and a session 
> where an expert nurse-practitioner who tested and reprogrammed the thing 
> by inductive coupling to a specialized computer program.
> 
> That's how I spent a week. No photography.
> -- 
> Herbert Kanner
> kanner at acm.org
> 650-326-8204
> 
> Question authority and the authorities will question you.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from kanner at acm.org (Herbert Kanner) ([Leica] OT My night and three days in the hospital)