Cardiology Procedure

 Tuesday 3rd September. 10.25 a.m. I know, I don't normally put the date on my posts, but, since I haven't posted in a while, I thought it might give some sort of idea of the length of time between the last one and this.

I have mentioned in earlier posts about the procedure I had at the cardiology department at Milton Keynes Hospital, and the electronic device, called an I.L.R., (Implantable Loop Recorder) that was inserted subcutaneously into my chest. It's tiny, and I assume it has an electronic chip in it, similar to a SIM card which can be found in a mobile phone. Anyway, I was informed at the time of the procedure that I would need to upload data from the device after six weeks and had a letter given to me informing me of this, and I was shown how to use the electronic device which looked somewhat like a telephone with a handset which I set up near my bed and also a small device, about the size of a luggage label which I put on my key ring. By holding the key-ring device near the I.L.R. and pressing a key on it so that it lit up, data would be transferred onto it, and then you use the gadget near my bed to upload the data which goes via the mobile phone system to the cardiology department. 

Six weeks after the procedure, I had to make sure I uploaded the data from the I.L.R. I followed the instructions, and it seemed to work. This was the Thursday before the Friday when I was to expect a remote consultation, which was scheduled for 1 p.m. I sat and waited. The time came and went. What had happened? Had I got the day and time wrong, perhaps? I checked on the N.H.S. app and both were correct.

So . . . I will cut to the chase. As the following Monday was a Bank Holiday and I assumed that the cardiology department would be closed, I thought it a good idea to telephone on Tuesday to find out what was going on. I didn't have the telephone number of the cardiology department, although I must have got it somewhere, probably in a letter, but I had no intention of going through all my paperwork to find it, so I went on the hospital website. I found the number, or so I thought. When I rang it, it certainly wasn't the cardiology department, and was told, by the lady who answered, to ring the main hospital switchboard, and they could put me through to cardiology. So, that was what I did. I explained to the receptionist about not having a telephone call on Friday, and she looked up my details on her computer and then informed me that they don't telephone unless something untoward showed up in the data from the I.L.R. Mine was fine, so no phone call. I should get a remote consultation in around six months. So, that was that. It was good, but I think it would have helped if they had told me I would only get a call if there were a problem showing up in the data. I have to say, I feel fine at the moment. Certainly no strange heartbeats, arrhythmias or whatever it's called.

Wednesday. 8.20 a.m. A fine and pleasant morning. It's not sunny and the thermometer currently reads 22ºc.

Yesterday morning I went shopping in Sainsbury's. I couldn't believe they have mince pies on offer. I had to have a second look, but it was true. We're only just into September and Christmas goodies are on sale. Crazy. 

2024 General Election (and other Minor Distractions)

Saturday. 7.45 a.m. Well, I sat up and watched the BBC's coverage of the General Election on Thursday night. The polling stations closed at 10 p.m. and I had been to cast my vote at 7.15 a.m., at the Oldbrook Community Hall, which is on Oldbrook Boulevard and opposite the Green. (No, I'm not going to reveal how I voted, it's between me and the ballot box.) I watched about the first couple of hours of the coverage and when the exit poll results were announced at 10, just after the polling stations closed, suggesting that Labour would have a landslide majority and the Conservatives were likely to get no more than 120 seats, I went back to bed.

I woke later to continue watching the election results as they came in. It was around 2 a.m. that it was clear that Labour had won, that Keir Starmer would be our next Prime Minister, and that the Conservatives conceded defeat. It has been revealed that it was the largest defeat of the Conservative Party in its entire history. 

Saturday. 2.25 p.m. My genealogy research is going well. Actually, I should say more than well. I am nearing 10,000 people on my tree. I am surprised how many of them, particularly on my paternal side, went to America. One was a soldier in the Civil War and, as far as my research goes, another during the American War of Independence. On my maternal side, one branch, the Gylkes, was a Quaker family and Thomas Gylkes was a clockmaker, some of his clock are valued at well over £1000, according to my Google searches.

Friday. 6.05 a.m. As you will have realized, I haven't posted anything on my blog for quite a while. One reason is that the browser I use most, Safari, has not been working properly. I can't scroll up and down, which makes it virtually impossible to view many websites and in particular, the functions on Blogger are difficult to deal with.

Saturday. 7.20 a.m. I have been struggling to find out why Safari has been playing up (not scrolling up or down.) I have been looking at the settings and trying different settings to see if any of them will work and after a great deal of effort, I have solved the problem! I can't see how this particular setting got altered but it has worked and things are back to some sort of normal. I have been using two other browsers, Firefox and Chrome and find all of them have advantages over each other, but, as I have fot used to Safari that's the main one I have used more or less since the first time I got an Apple Macintosh computer.

I must have mentioned that I had an appointment with a consultant at the cardiology department at Milton Keynes Hospital a few weeks ago. As a result the consultant suggested I have an implant in my chest which would monitor any irregularities of my heart rhythm and hopefully prevent me from having a further episode of either a heart attack or blackout which I had in the early days of 2024. Yesterday I had an appointment to have this procedure done. It was scheduled for 12 mid-day. It was easy enough parking, immediately outside the department. That was one of my biggest worries, not being able to park the car and then having to find a space somewhere else and then not be late for the appointment.

Monday. 6.20 a.m. It is taking a good deal longer than usual to complete writing this post. I will attempt to do so now.

I digress . . . Continuing from the above. I waited for a brief moment in the waiting area in the cardiology department, before a nurse came out and called me in with another patient.

I had to change into a hospital gown. I hate these things! I know they get you to wear them if you have to have a procedure done or have an operation, but they only tie up with a few lengths of thin tape and the back is open, that is, if you don't manage to hold on to it to prevent your behind being exposed. I took off my shirt, remained in my underwear and socks, and just waited. Other patients in the six-bed unit came in and then disappeared to have their procedure done. Above all else, it was just boring sitting and waiting.  Eventually, at around 1.30 I was called in by a nurse, who took me into the (I won't call it an operating theatre. It did remind me of the room where I had the stents fitted after I had my second heart attack in September 2018, at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.)  The nurse got me to take off the gown and lay on a bench (for want of a better name. It was more like a bed, padded and not too uncomfortable. A surgeon, dressed in a gown (perhaps called a smock, but I don't know, also with a face mask and, one again, reminding me of the stent-fitting, with the surgeon wearing a green gown and a face mask. But the memory of face masks is related, to me anyway, more to the face masks we were expected to wear during the covid pandemic lockdowns, and the second heart attack was around 18 months before all that happened. The surgeon cleaned my chest and then said that I would experience a slight sting, which would have been when he made an incision in my chest, on the left, just over my heart, and the procedure was over, and I returned to the unit to wait, yet again.

A nurse came to talk to me about the gadgetry I was given, which communicates with the implant in my chest (I.L.R. or Implantable Loop Recorder.) I have a box, which looks vaguely like a landline telephone which includes a separate handset which sits in the cradle on the box, as well as a remote device, small enough to fit on my keyring and should go with me everywhere. If I hold the remote device over the implant when, or if, I have a irregular heart rhythm, the device will record an electronic measurement, similar to the reading that is given by an E.C.G. and this data is sent to the cardiology department at the hospital. I was also given a letter, telling me that a remote appointment had been arranged for the 23rd of August, and that I have to send data from the home monitor (the gadget I describe above, and which sits on my bedside table. So, having had the implant and given instructions on the various aspects of its use, which are also included in several leaflets I was given, I got dressed and then left the cardiology department.