Gavin's Heart (Part 3 of 3)

 

Apparently, they have a band new technology and now make what is termed a leadless pacemaker made by Abbot.  So rather than having a big matchbox type thing under your arm or on your chest that attaches to the wired pacemaker, they make this thing this is about half the size of your pinky finger that screws into the heart ventricle muscle from the front side.  This is actually a picture of it inside his heart after his surgery, but there was a bit of saga leading up to the surgery itself.  Gavin developed a bit of a fever while in the hospital for some reason and they wouldn't proceed until it was under control.  It was super touch and go (and if we had missed this window) we would have had to wait out the weekend again and be here several more days.  Thankfully, the morning of the surgery, his fever broke and they proceeded.

It was hard to have him go under again after just being through such a serious episode leading up to this, but we were confident it was the best path forward.  The surgery itself took a few hours and thankfully, because he is almost a grown man size at 6'2", they were able to feed it directly down through his carotid artery in his neck into the heart.  This was a bit easier than going through the femoral artery in his groin.  Here he is recovering from surgery.  It never really gets easier seeing your child this way, but the doctors said the surgery went well.  They did have a small concern that the "capture" wasn't performing optimally which means that the charge dispersed through the pacemaker was having to be at a slightly higher voltage than they would like.  They did consult with the Abbot rep and after a day or two, it drifted back into an acceptable range.

Most nights I slept in the room with Gavin overnight, but toward the end of our stay Tara was able to take over and take a night.  We still had Gage at home so we were constantly running back and forth between the hospital.  Here is Tara loving on Gavin as he gets closer to his last day here.

Here we are in our final free state and so thankful that we have a healthy son with us!  Behind us on the top floor in the corner is where we spent almost all of our time for the week.  Once again, I couldn't speak more highly of the hospital, its staff, and all of the care we received.  It truly is top notch, and we also thank his doctor, Dr. Johannes von Alvensleben.  One of the smartest and kindest doctors we have ever had...and always makes you feel like you are his only patient.  Truly exceptional!

Gavin also gets to carry around this card for the rest of his life and skip all metal detectors.  Moving forward, he will have quarterly check ins with the hospital and should have a battery life of somewhere between 16 to 18 years.  Unfortunately, at that point he may have to have a replacement, but who knows where technology will be by then!