Well, after a week at home, I'm feeling pretty good. Still somewhat washed out at times, but I've had the stitch out today, so after struggling with bird baths and contortions to wash my hair so as not to get the dressing wet - I can finally have a shower. What luxury! Apart from all the sticky residue from electrodes, which is incredibly stubborn, it will be a challenge to rid myself of the delicate shade of pink left behind by the antiseptic hibiscrub they plaster you with!
So for a while no more milestones. The next eagerly awaited exercise will be the permission to lift my left arm above shoulder level - sometime at the end of January. Then it will a wait until the end of Feb for my first check up at Morriston. So, so far so good. I hope all friends out there are good and not getting too depressed by the miserable weather. Today looks like the end of the world here-one of those very wet, never going to get light sort of days. I'd much rather have the sun, even if I have to put up with frost.
Anyway - love to everyone out there, thanks again for all your good wishes and stay well.
Love, Lynnexxxxxxxx

Wonderful to be home

Well, here I am at last!! and how great it is to be home - peace, quiet, a comfortable bed and fresh food.
I want to say a really heartfelt thank you, to you all, for all your kindness and warm wishes to us all over the last month - it's been quite a haul. But all your thoughts for us have been sincerely appreciated and valued. So thanks, on David's behalf as well as all our family, it's wonderful to have such caring friends.
Day by day it's a slow progress back to strength. Still very sore of shoulder, but I suppose that's to be expected given the size of the chunk of metal that's gone in!! Stitches come out next week - just a visit to the local practice nurse - then a monthly check, 3-monthly and lastly 6-monthly - to reprogramme the bionic woman! Don't remember any grotesque lumpy shoulders on her though!
I hope to be getting round to writing some real letters in the not-too-distant future, but in the meantime, thank you all again - and KEEP HEALTHY!!
With lots of love,
Lynnexxxxx

Mum's home!

When the doctor changed the dressing on Mum's wound this morning, he said there was no reason why she shouldn't go home.

So Dad went to the hospital in Swansea and brought her back home again, just under 4 weeks after her heart attack.

She's now resting at home having opened the rest of her Christmas presents.

A week tomorrow she has to go to her own doctor in Llandysul (15 minutes from home) to have the dressing removed and the stitches out. Then in a month's time she must go back to Swansea for an outpatients check on her ICD, then there'll be another outpatients appointment 3 months later.

For a month now, she's got to take it easy. Dad's already in line for some advanced cookery lessons, after boiling an egg for Mum's tea which proceeded to run all over the plate as soon as Mum cut its top off.

Mum hasn't finally decided whether to wrap up the blog now that she's home, or whether to continue it herself.

But once again, thanks from all of us for all your get-well messages, phonecalls, and for following this blog.

Happy New Year to all.

Emily

P.S. The Long QT test came back negative. So as far as I know, the hospital were unable to find a reason why Mum's heart fibrillated in the first place. But hopefully the ICD will prevent it happening again.

Another night

I just rang the hospital.

Mum's ok, but being kept in overnight so they can "keep an eye on her wound" - presumably the site where her ICD was fitted.

I wasn't allowed to speak to Mum (they have either just introduced, or are more strictly enforcing, a rule that says patients can't use the phone - Matt thinks that's why so many of them have smuggled in mobiles).

More news as I get it.

Emily

Home time

Mum wasn't allowed home yesterday, for two reasons.

Firstly, she was still very sleepy from the sedative. She was given diamorphine (is that the same as heroin??) and she's very susceptible to sedative medicines anyway, so she was still very sleepy yesterday evening.

Secondly, the hospital wanted to do X-rays to make sure that the ICD has settled in the right place and hasn't moved!

But we're expecting her to be sent home today.

Another update either later today or tomorrow morning.

Emily

Operation done

The good news is that Mum's had her operation, it went well and the nurse says she's fine, resting on the ward. She had a local anaesthetic and some sedation, so is still a bit woozy.

The not so good news is that Mum may not be allowed home until tomorrow, because they have to do some checks and tests, presumably to make sure the ICD settles in the right place.

But one more night, after nearly 4 weeks, isn't so bad!

I'm not sure what'll happen to this blog once Mum goes home. She's said she might take it up herself. But if we do opt to close it down then I'll make sure and do another posting before we do.

Bye for now.

Emily

Still on for tomorrow

The hospital say that Mum's ICD fitting is still scheduled for tomorrow morning (though they have been dropping comments about other patients needing angioplasties, so we're hoping they won't bump Mum down the list again).

Mum is worried about the procedure, unsurprisingly - it must be worrying to have people monkeying about with your heart. But Dad's opinion is that the hospital staff seem to know what they're doing, which is reassuring.

The plan is still for Dad to pick Mum up and bring her home tomorrow evening. Here's hoping that all goes well.

Dad had a talk with the arrhythmia nurse about Long QT syndrome. Apparently on some ECG's there's a really obviously long gap between the Q and T waves, but on others, it's much more subtle. The nurse's view is that Mum's is either really subtle or not there at all (i.e. it doesn't look like she has Long QT syndrome) but that's not conclusive. We're still waiting on the results of the specific Long QT tests.

More tomorrow, hopefully it will be news of Mum's coming home.

Emily