With all the political and legal drama that surrounds our former President, the news cycle can get pretty tough to slog through. It boggles my mind that he is indicted, and yet he has more political life than The Eveready Bunny. So, while there should be warning sounds all over the place, I found that in the midst of all this drama, I had a little of my own. I do not know about you but I am hearing warning sounds constantly these days. Mostly, it is that the Republican party has no qualms over presenting a candidate with so many charges and convictions in his past and present dealings. And then there is Maralago/bathroom confidential files debacle, the Georgia call seeking to “find” enough votes for him to carry him to victory in 2020, and Trump’s involvement in the January 6th.
Amidst the political dramas, we have had shootings. This past October Maine joined the “Lets get ticked off at the world and randomly shoot and kill regular men, women and children enjoying a night out at a bowling alley and a pub”. In this case it does not appear it was targeting any particular person, unless you count that four of the dead were deaf and one other person is a well-known deaf interpreter. After a shut down through three counties, the next day they found the person: surprise, surprise, he had mental health problems and a family who did not require him to give up his guns.
One day in December I hear a warning tone as I walked through the old summer kitchen in our house. It sounded like a European police car with the two-tone claxon sound. We had put up new smoke detectors, and I knew from a previous outage that the detector, when triggered would say “evacuate, evacuate”. Perhaps one of the others had a different warning sound, I reasoned. As I walked around the downstairs checking rooms, I realized it really was just as strong in the main house as the back wing. It was then it dawned on me that my pacemaker/defibrillator can make sounds when something is wrong. It beeps exactly like a smoke detector if I am near a magnet, so maybe this new warning sound was coming from my chest. I would like to blame my senior moment on taking a long time to thaw out, so I was slow. In truth I have had a warning sign before (do not get your Disney band too close to the pacemaker or you get a warning beep that it will go off). This two-toned claxon was different.
I called the office of my cardiologist who is located in Scarborough 80 miles south of home. When I described the problem, I was immediately referred to the device department and it was determined that something, either the pacemaker or defibrillator had a issue. Since it was late afternoon, I went to the ER in Augusta and a technician from Scarborough drove up to meet me. It was determined that the defibrillator had a faulty lead, even though mine really was not that old. Immediately we set up some pre-op appointments and I was given a list of things to do prior to having it replaced. Once I had a telehealth appointment with the cardiac surgeon, it took a bit for the surgeon and the electrophysiologist/cardiologist to synchronize their schedules, settling for the last week of February. A insurance issue popped up which required the professionals (cardiologists) and the insurance gate keepers to have a meeting to have the insurance approve not only the lasar removal and the insertion of new one, but also a new generator which is part of the lead- you can’t put have of one in there and expect it to work. At the last minute, my surgeon got notice from his Naval Reserve unit that he was being deployed to Korea for a time. Fortunately, he was able to get an opening a couple days earlier and the fix was set.
It is amazing how they can manage to get into the chest through a fairly small incision and retrieve the fractured lead, which thankfully decided to come out easily, and then the other cardiologist inserted the new one, the generator and I think new batteries. I had to stay for an overnight and be monitored to make sure all was pacing properly. It is not really pretty looking- unless you like black and blue and yellow at every intravenous port (3) and the chest cut. In time it will return to its normal color, although I think it shows under my skin a little more this time. Think Appalachian trail rather than the Rocky Mountains. I will have a few more appointments, a new monitor in my house, and another echocardiogram with Definity to see how serious my gradient is., but nothing to get worked up about.
Now that that crisis is over, my “If I die first” notebook, needs updating so the kids can help Dave figure out how to run the house and pay the bills, along with needed usernames and passwords. One of the next big steps will be to make Josh our power of attorney for financial and medical should we need it. I am trying to get a catalog of some of the items we have collected over the years, some are family pieces, and the kids need to know that whether or not they are interested in them. I am providing a list of auctioneers we have found to be trustworthy. Still when it gets to that point, we will either be gone or unable to participate in the dissolution. We have made some significant steps by distributing/selling a few of our old cars. They need maintenance and neither of us are up to it anymore, plus we want to make sure every grandchild either gets a car or cash. It seems as the 70’s are flying by and we need to step into the next phase. Our plan is to stay in our house for as long as we are able, but sometimes it simply isn’t possible.
While many in our country are sounding the alarm about just how we follow the constitution and the laws of our land moderate and progressive Democrats, and moderate Republicans alike are sounding a claxon as we gear up for the November election. I hope we collectively join together and clearly state again, the values that we hold dear.
weftalone 