A New Heart or The Tin Man Gets a Heart

Mike has always loved the lion from The Wizard of Oz the best, but now he can relate to the Tin Man more!Mike has been dealing with a couple of health issues this last year, one of them being his heart rate had slowed so much it was causing him some problems. He noticed it first when they kept turning him away when he tried to donate blood. They take your heart rate first and it needs to be a minimum of 50. His started slipping below that. It was usually between 35-40! Normal is between 60-70 at resting pace. Then we noticed he was tired all the time. He would do just a little project and he would need a nap! Then he started getting dizzy and lightheaded, so finally he mentioned this to his doctor and was sent to a cardiologist. After many test and poke and prodings they decided that his heart is clear and has no blockages, but his brain wasn't telling his heart to beat. They refer to this as an electrical problem or "sick sinus syndrom". The cure? A pace maker! So on Decemember 14th he had surgery to implant the pace maker. All went well and he is pretty well recovered. We noticed a fast improvement after about 2 days. He has so much energy now. I have had a hard time keeping him down! The color has come back to his face and he looks great. His only restrictions right now are that he can't lift his arm above his shoulder as this might pull the wires out of the veins to the heart. This will eventually scar over and hold with no problems. He can't lift anything over 5 pounds (even a carton of milk weighs more than 5 pounds). And the last one is the hardest for him...he can't play his drums for awhile. He has a follow up appointment next week and hopes to be freed of all these restrictions. But meanwhile I can't believe the difference it has made.