The wonky magnet

I finally have half a moment to sit down and talk about the whole unexpected surgery. Where to begin?

Drool Prince is the proud owner of a pacemaker. He had it implanted about a year & half ago. Since then , we do a phone check of the pacemaker every few months. The scheduled phone check just happened to be on the same day that Baby Bug was getting his T&A surgery, so I rescheduled it to the next week.

1week post T&A surgery on Baby Bug (who was still pretty grumpified & not eating well *side note- lost almost 2lbs*) the phone rings.. ring, ring , ring. Sure enough it's Lifewatch to do the pacer check. Ooops, my bad. With everything else going on I hadn't spent too much time on the computer and sadly I dont remember to brush my teeth unless my computer calendar reminds me. So yeah, I had Drool Prince sleeping & had to call them back.. Oops. Ohh and Attitude King had a friend over working on a report for school.. I have to throw that out there to total redeem myself in some way, right?!

Wake up the monster- the one that we NEVER wake up b/c he will be a complete goblin if we do- to do the phone check. I get him all hooked up to his fun little electrodes, call Lifewatch back and we begin..

First reading done- no problem. This will be over quickly and hey, maybe the goblin will go back to sleep? (wishful thinking I know but still!).

Next it's time to put that lovely magnet over his pacemaker. I put it over and we begin.. only there's no clicking sound that should be emitting about now.. hmm..

Pick the phone back up, the tech says uhmm can you see the pacemaker? Ohh yes, Drool Prince has lot some weight lately and it sticks out soo bad, you can feel all the ridges of it. So yeah I am definitely getting it on the actual pacer.

We try again. and again.. and again. Not working.. grrr! I'm starting to get irritated, must be a broken magnet? Drool Prince is getting restless & upset that Mommy is pushing so hard on his tummy (sorry bud!).

Finally the tech transfers us to a different tech hoping he'll have some other ideas of how to get it to read right.

Finally we get that clicking sound we've been waiting on! Only it's not quite right. It comes and goes.. Tech gives up and says it's good enough.

Last reading- put magnet behind my back and do normal transmission again, right? Yeah, until I notice we still are getting clicking once in a while. I pick up the phone & the tech says - you need to take the magnet OFF now.. Dude, I did.. duh! So I put the magnet completely away and we try again. Same dang thing.

So first we couldn't get the darn magnet to make it click & then we couldnt' get it to stop clicking! ARGHHH!!!

Tech then does the thing that parents love most .. he tells me (and I quote) " Ok, well I'm going to go ahead and sent this transmission over to his dr RIGHT AWAY. I want you to leave the phone lines clear b/c the dr will be calling you in a few minutes and will probably want you to come in to the office"

I waited 30mins and called the dr. They hadn't received the transmission or if they did it got jumbled around and lost. They'd go look.

2hrs after the transmission the dr finally called back. Yeah I was a bit stressed by that point.

It appears the transmission is indicating that either his pacemaker lead is broken (wouldn't that be just my luck?) or the threshhold just needs raised up. Either way we need to make the 2hr trip down to the Children's hospital -tonite. It's already after 5pm.

We scramble around to pack everyone up, talk grandma & grandpa into keeping the oldest three and head out.

...to be continued..