Time for a new tuner....

Yea..that!

Congrats on the surgery and Happy Birthday!!

I am back home now. Still quite sore. The whole procedure was done only under local anesthetic, I was wide awake thru the whole thing. There was a few times that I had to tell them that the local was wearing off. DANG THOSE SCALPELS ARE SHARP!!!

This morning they came in to take a download of the first night on the new tuner. It was having to pace me 98% of the time.

Very joyed that you are back among us. Now send some snow out just for fun.

Well I am feeling better today, The insertion site is still really tender but at least I can move my left arm around. For the next 4 weeks i can not rise my left elbow above my shoulder or lift more than 10 lbs but at least I can move it. The last 2 days I could barley move it at all.

Sylvester, The nozzles are pretty heavy and high up, with being unable to raise my arm and the 10 lb limit I do not know if I can turn them away from due east. I am not sure if @cowpuc will like just firing up the www and forgetting about it.

Well I am feeling better today, The insertion site is still really tender but at least I can move my left arm around. For the next 4 weeks i can not rise my left elbow above my shoulder or lift more than 10 lbs but at least I can move it. The last 2 days I could barley move it at all.

 

Sylvester, The nozzles are pretty heavy and high up, with being unable to raise my arm and the 10 lb limit I do not know if I can turn them away from due east. I am not sure if cowpuc will like just firing up the www and forgetting about it.

:clap2::clap2: Keep getting better. Don't strain yourself. there is always summer time for snow.

Very joyed that you are back among us. Now send some snow out just for fun.

 

Yes,, yes, yes,, by all means YES! Please do cover the great State of North Carolina with a goodly amount of White Wash Fool,, just for fun!!!

Well I am feeling better today, The insertion site is still really tender but at least I can move my left arm around. For the next 4 weeks i can not rise my left elbow above my shoulder or lift more than 10 lbs but at least I can move it. The last 2 days I could barley move it at all.

 

Sylvester, The nozzles are pretty heavy and high up, with being unable to raise my arm and the 10 lb limit I do not know if I can turn them away from due east. I am not sure if cowpuc will like just firing up the www and forgetting about it.

Glad your home and doing well brother!! Take er easy and give that Tuner a chance to adjust to lop eared varmint lifestyle,, wont be long and you'll be back out howlin at the moon and chasing cars!!

Concerning firing up the WWW and forgetting about it,, by all means, have at er BUT please make sure you got the full choke choke tubes screwed into the nozzles and that they are aimed directly at North Carolina,, you got a lop eared buddy varmint down yonder named Sly that is just itchin to see if he can blow the powder off his driveway with his 12 gauge shotgun!!

Yes,, yes, yes,, by all means YES! Please do cover the great State of North Carolina with a goodly amount of White Wash Fool,, just for fun!!!

Well ya know Puc, I can not make changes to the nozzles right now since they are way up at the top of the machine and for the next month I am not supposed to raise my arms above my shoulders. That means that the IMP CYL choke tubes will have to stay in and they will have to remain pointed due east. But I will at least see what I can do about the part of "let her rip".

Hey Puc (and others with tuners also). When they did mine I was wide awake thru the whole thing, just a local at the site where they were carving. So I got to make comments all the way thru the procedure. There was 5 or 6 times that I had to tell them to use more numbing because they were starting to cut outside of the numb area. (DANG those scalpels are sharp:scared:) The docs were also quite surprised when I said "I felt that" as they were screwing the wires to the wall of my heart. The heart is not supposed to be able to feel anything. It was not pain that I felt, It was a sensation like you would expect from a pin prick but it was dead center in my chest. I am just curious how common it is to be wide awake while someone is carving on you and messing with your ticker.

Well ya know Puc, I can not make changes to the nozzles right now since they are way up at the top of the machine and for the next month I am not supposed to raise my arms above my shoulders. That means that the IMP CYL choke tubes will have to stay in and they will have to remain pointed due east. But I will at least see what I can do about the part of "let her rip".

 

Hey Puc (and others with tuners also). When they did mine I was wide awake thru the whole thing, just a local at the site where they were carving. So I got to make comments all the way thru the procedure. There was 5 or 6 times that I had to tell them to use more numbing because they were starting to cut outside of the numb area. (DANG those scalpels are sharp:scared:) The docs were also quite surprised when I said "I felt that" as they were screwing the wires to the wall of my heart. The heart is not supposed to be able to feel anything. It was not pain that I felt, It was a sensation like you would expect from a pin prick but it was dead center in my chest. I am just curious how common it is to be wide awake while someone is carving on you and messing with your ticker.

WOWZY WOW WOW WOW brother ,, aint no way,, aint no how them varmints was gonna go working on my heart with me awake,, matter of fact - I am such a sissy that under normal circumstances I would prefer to have laughin gas even when a Dental Hygenist cleans my biters:missingtooth:!!! When I had my new tuner installed they rolled me into the land of Oz on a gurney, I chatted with the Rep from Medtronics (manufacturer of my Tuner) about the make/model of the device and had a brief discussion with my Cardiologist and then it was good night neverland.. Like you, I started off in the upper 90's of percentage of time my Tuner was controlling things and was warned about that having an influence on battery life. On my Medtronics Tuner the battery cannot be charged externally and to be replaced they have to remove the entire unit and install a new one in a different location. I was told that if my heart did not respond to the tuner by self correcting some that I probably would not see the 10 year usual battery life. I was kind of surprised by this because the Electric Pain Management Unit that they installed in me when I broke my back (kind of cool,, they run an 8 inch wire with electrodes clamped on it - kind of looked like multiple nocking points on a bow string - along the nerve bundle in my spine and attached that to a pace maker looking device that is installed under your skin) actually had a rechargeable battery in it that was recharged and adustable thru the skin. I am still not sure why that technology has not been applied to the Tuners (maybe it has in your case?) = maybe cause the lobby for return customers is stronger in the Cardio field then in the Neuro Surgery field

Glad your back to health again brother!!! Until you strong enough and agile enough to be able to toss in the chokes on the nozzles, I wonder if you shouldn't take some of the :mo money:you saved by going with no anesteecha on the install and hire a neighbor hood kid to screw in those chokes so you can give those folks down south the White Wash they are needing and hoping for?

I am just curious how common it is to be wide awake while someone is carving on you and messing with your ticker.

I don't know how common it is but they used the same technique 40 years when they installed mine. They also kept me awake when they pulled it several years ago. That was more uncomfortable than when they installed it. I asked them if they could install a zipper so I wouldn't have to go through this again in the event that I will need another one some time in the future. They didn't listen to me.

I also wondered about making them rechargeable thru the skin. The tech is certainly around and many products have cordless recharging, like tooth brushes, cell phones and such.

BUT then the engineer in me wakes up and the only reasons that I can come up with is that rechargeable cells have a much lower power density than non rechargeable cells. In other words the single use cell that is in the tuner may last 10 years, but a rechargeable one with the same electrical capacity would be sever times bigger, or a rechargeable that is the same size as the non rechargeable would need to be recharged a lot more often, like every 2 or 3 years. The whole pacemaker would also have to either be made bigger to accommodate the charging circuitry, or the battery be made even smaller. Rechargeable batteries also have a useful life. There are not many that will live much more than 10 years before they need replacement anyhow.

Then there is the charging its self, A phone that uses wireless charging can take over night to charge and has to be very close to the charger. SO to charge the tuner you would need to wear something that would hold the charger tight to your skin for many hours.

Another issue is that the new tuners like mine, are immune to strong magnetic fields like an MRI. The wireless chargers use magnetism to transfer the energy wirelessly. The magnetic shielding of the tuner would prevent that.

Now that I have put this all in writing, I can see where it may just not be practical to to make a rechargeable tuner.

As for replacement time, I was told that the new one will go into the exact same spot and the old one. When that time comes. AND in many cases they will reuse the wires that are already installed in the heart.

So far the score is 2 awake and one sleeper.

AND in many cases they will reuse the wires that are already installed in the heart.

When they removed my pacer, they left the wire in. Was told it was because scar tissue wraps around it. The longer they are in place, the more scar tissue.

When they removed my pacer, they left the wire in. Was told it was because scar tissue wraps around it. The longer they are in place, the more scar tissue.

The Rep from Medtronics that I was talking to just before my install was telling me that they do not just replace the battery when it runs out and they gotta open ya back up. They have to replace the whole unit and, if I heard him correctly, they cannot replace it back into the same site where the unit with the tired battery was located. In my case, this being right below the collar bone on the left side. I think that probably meant also replacing the leads as I can imagine them sticking the unit down on my torso somewhere and then routing new cables up to the collar bone to plug them into the old leads. Might be wrong though as I know them Dr.s like to tinker and tweek just as much as us gear heads

I also wondered about making them rechargeable thru the skin. The tech is certainly around and many products have cordless recharging, like tooth brushes, cell phones and such.

 

BUT then the engineer in me wakes up and the only reasons that I can come up with is that rechargeable cells have a much lower power density than non rechargeable cells. In other words the single use cell that is in the tuner may last 10 years, but a rechargeable one with the same electrical capacity would be sever times bigger, or a rechargeable that is the same size as the non rechargeable would need to be recharged a lot more often, like every 2 or 3 years. The whole pacemaker would also have to either be made bigger to accommodate the charging circuitry, or the battery be made even smaller. Rechargeable batteries also have a useful life. There are not many that will live much more than 10 years before they need replacement anyhow.

 

Then there is the charging its self, A phone that uses wireless charging can take over night to charge and has to be very close to the charger. SO to charge the tuner you would need to wear something that would hold the charger tight to your skin for many hours.

 

Another issue is that the new tuners like mine, are immune to strong magnetic fields like an MRI. The wireless chargers use magnetism to transfer the energy wirelessly. The magnetic shielding of the tuner would prevent that.

 

Now that I have put this all in writing, I can see where it may just not be practical to to make a rechargeable tuner.

 

 

As for replacement time, I was told that the new one will go into the exact same spot and the old one. When that time comes. AND in many cases they will reuse the wires that are already installed in the heart.

 

So far the score is 2 awake and one sleeper.

The electrical panel for pain management of the nerves in my lower back/spine was no bigger than my Tuner and the battery in it was rechargable thru the skin. I kind of wonder if it has more to do with the application = 1 is for pain management which a dead battery in that application would just result in the return of the feeling that someone has built a camp fire on your legs, the other could result in someone dieing of heart failure with a permanent being the result

The Rep from Medtronics that I was talking to just before my install was telling me that they do not just replace the battery when it runs out and they gotta open ya back up. They have to replace the whole unit and, if I heard him correctly, they cannot replace it back into the same site where the unit with the tired battery was located. In my case, this being right below the collar bone on the left side. I think that probably meant also replacing the leads as I can imagine them sticking the unit down on my torso somewhere and then routing new cables up to the collar bone to plug them into the old leads. Might be wrong though as I know them Dr.s like to tinker and tweek just as much as us gear heads

Now just for giggles I did download the installation manual and setup manual for my tuner, the ones made for the doc. In that manual it does say that for battery replacement the entire unit is to be removed and returned to Medtronics for evaluation, the leads are to be tested and can be reused if they test good, and the ends are compatible with the new tuner, then the new tuner is installed in the existing pocket and the hole sewed back shut. This also agrees with what my Doc told me. Of course each person has their own unique situation and your requirements may be different than mine.

Now just for giggles I did download the installation manual and setup manual for my tuner, the ones made for the doc. In that manual it does say that for battery replacement the entire unit is to be removed and returned to Medtronics for evaluation, the leads are to be tested and can be reused if they test good, and the ends are compatible with the new tuner, then the new tuner is installed in the existing pocket and the hole sewed back shut. This also agrees with what my Doc told me. Of course each person has their own unique situation and your requirements may be different than mine.

Probably has something to do with how corrosive and resistant to current flow any particular lop eared varmints body happens to be

It could even be that some docs will prepare you for worst case and then you can be pleasantly surprised latter on. Or I am sure that there are some that will do a complete reinstall needed or not because it will pay more and vacation time or Christmas is getting close.

Just a quick update since I have now had this new tuner for 6 weeks.

The purpose of me getting the tuner was to hopefully make me have fewer episodes of Afib. Prior to the tuner I was having an Afib episode every 13-15 days. Just like clock work. My last episode prior to the tuner was March 20, the day before installation. I was pretty disheartened when I had a quick episode April 15, at least that was more than my "normal" 14 days later and it was less severe. Then another full blown episode May 4.

Since May 4 I have NOT had another episode, so maybe, HOPEFULLY, it is now finally starting to help me. One full month with no episodes is a long time for me. Hoping to add to the string by a lot.

Just a quick update since I have now had this new tuner for 6 weeks.

The purpose of me getting the tuner was to hopefully make me have fewer episodes of Afib. Prior to the tuner I was having an Afib episode every 13-15 days. Just like clock work. My last episode prior to the tuner was March 20, the day before installation. I was pretty disheartened when I had a quick episode April 15, at least that was more than my "normal" 14 days later and it was less severe. Then another full blown episode May 4.

Since May 4 I have NOT had another episode, so maybe, HOPEFULLY, it is now finally starting to help me. One full month with no episodes is a long time for me. Hoping to add to the string by a lot.

:dancefool::dancefool::dancefool::dancefool:

and right there with the :fingers-crossed-emo:fingers-crossed-emo:fingers-crossed-emo:fingers-crossed-emo for you Jeff and TONS of Prayers Up too:happy34:!!!

GREAT NEWS = THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE ya lop eared makin varmint!!!

Terrific news. A whole month a-fib free. Sounds like the pacer and your heart along with any medication are adjusting nicely. Hopefully things will stay in sync so well that you pretty much forget about having the pacer during your normal daily and nightly activities.

Just had my 3 month checkup with the Cardiologist.

He said that things are working as expected. My tuner is pacing 91% of the time. I did have one full blown episode of AFib in the last 3 months but that is much better than the every other week that was doing. There was also 2 episodes of unexplained high heart rate that never went to irregular rhythm of AFib. The Doc said that was most likely my heart trying to go into AFib but the tuner was filling in the blanks so that I did not go irregular. He said that is exactly how it is supposed to work.

All of the other questions and concerns that I had were answered as being perfectly normal and to be expected.

He did make the comment that some day when I do die, it is very unlikely that it will be because of my heart. But he did say that I should still lose some more weight...... When's dinner.........

Let me be the first to congratulate you. Keep the good news coming. You are on my prayer list.

Just had my 3 month checkup with the Cardiologist.

He said that things are working as expected. My tuner is pacing 91% of the time. I did have one full blown episode of AFib in the last 3 months but that is much better than the every other week that was doing. There was also 2 episodes of unexplained high heart rate that never went to irregular rhythm of AFib. The Doc said that was most likely my heart trying to go into AFib but the tuner was filling in the blanks so that I did not go irregular. He said that is exactly how it is supposed to work.

 

All of the other questions and concerns that I had were answered as being perfectly normal and to be expected.

 

He did make the comment that some day when I do die, it is very unlikely that it will be because of my heart. But he did say that I should still lose some more weight...... When's dinner.........

I hear there is a big feast planned for the future, food like you've never tasted before!!! you weren't thinking of that meal were ya?

Just had my 3 month checkup with the Cardiologist.

He said that things are working as expected. My tuner is pacing 91% of the time. I did have one full blown episode of AFib in the last 3 months but that is much better than the every other week that was doing. There was also 2 episodes of unexplained high heart rate that never went to irregular rhythm of AFib. The Doc said that was most likely my heart trying to go into AFib but the tuner was filling in the blanks so that I did not go irregular. He said that is exactly how it is supposed to work.

 

All of the other questions and concerns that I had were answered as being perfectly normal and to be expected.

 

He did make the comment that some day when I do die, it is very unlikely that it will be because of my heart. But he did say that I should still lose some more weight...... When's dinner.........

OUTSTANDING you lop eared white washin, ice in the veins varmint!! SOOO GLAD TO READ THIS Jeff!! THANK YOU for the update my brother:thumbsup:...