Hubby's heartaches.

Ken's cardiologist has finally made a decision about Ken's heart. Ken had another echo-cardiogram before we saw Dr.M today, and it wasn't real good. Dr M. says the cardio.conference (where a group of heart specialists meet to discuss their patients) decided it was too risky to operate on Ken, as his heart is too badly damaged to withstand an operation. So they are going to put a pacemaker in, and see if that helps the heart to work a bit better.

I think Ken is relieved that he won't have to go 'under the knife', and he joked with Dr.M about what would happen if the battery goes flat. Dr M looked at us pokerfaced, and said 'Well, if the pacemaker stops, you just die'. He knows us well enough to be able to say such outrageous things that make us laugh! Ken has to see another specialist that Dr M refers to as 'the Electrician' - the person who will install the pacemaker into Ken. That will be next month, and hopefully he will be able to do the procedure soon afterwards. Ken says he just wants to be able to breathe properly, and Dr M assured him that it would go a long way to making life more comfortable for him. He did hint that Ken might have to think about retiring though, but we'll wait and see what happens. Ken wants to keep working as long as he can. I tell him that we can live on the pension if he stops spending money on his bikes, but if he continues to do that, he'll just have to keep working!

I think I might have shocked a few people with my flippant remarks about my brother in the previous post. Ken thought I was being heartless, so I relented, and phoned my brother, wondering what sort of reception I'd get after all these years. I was pleasantly surprised; B. was quite affable, and we chatted away for about 20 minutes. He said he is fine now, and was returning to work this week, so he's obviously been very lucky, and suffered no serious damage to his heart. I guess I'm pleased. At least we won't have to go to a funeral in the near future. Oops. Sorry - I know - poor taste.