The Surgery

2 invalids

 My family has the genetics from H E double hockey sticks. It really is true. Besides just the annoying short and fat genes we have to deal with a family gene of serious colon cancer (that my Mom died from) and a heart arrhythmia (that Linz died from). My sisters would probably tell me to not forget the thin hair gene as well, but luckily I don't have to deal with that.
In December I was going about my normal day and was with my friends at an institute class and I wasn't feeling quite right. I happened to look at my apple watch and noticed that my heart rate was at 120 - and I was sitting down. My heart rate is normally at 50 when I'm sitting down. I tried to take a couple of deep breaths to see if I could get it to calm down but it wasn't. So I went to the Urgent Care, got an EKG and they told me to go straight to the ER, which of course I ignored because I only believe in going to ER's if you're losing a limb. Anyway, in the course of the next few months I had lots of tests run including MRI, Echo cardiogram, and wearing a heart monitor 24/7 for a month. After all this was done it was concluded that I tested positive for my family's awesome gene that produces Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy or HCM for short. It basically means my heart can go into an unnatural rhythm and not be able to get out of it and I die. To prevent this the Dr.'s determined I should have a ICD placed (a pacemaker and defibrillator). Thanks to Covid, it got pushed back and I finally had it done a few weeks ago. And to make this story even more fun, having me find out about all this reminded my brother Greg (who already knew he had the gene) that he should have a check up and it was decided that he needed the same device placed as well. So he had his surgery the day before me!
The surgery was not an enjoyable experience (shocking I know) but it was made worse by the fact that I couldn't have anyone with me thanks to Covid. So Toby dropped me off at the curb at the hospital and picked me up the next day! So not fun. But it's over and I can finally move my arm again and hopefully I don't die until I'm 75.

The heart monitor I had to wear for a month.