Happy Fun Recall Time for Me

Did you read about the Medtronic defibrillator lead recall? Guess who has a Fidelis lead implanted in her heart?

Oh yeah, baby.

Luckily, I have an appointment with my cardiologist next week. There's not much that can be done, really. There's a 2.5% chance the lead might fracture--setting off inappropriate shocks or no shock if I need it--but as one of my online support group members said, if we didn't have the ICD, there would be 100% chance we'd die if our hearts stopped.

Apparently there's some jiggery-pokery that they can do with programming to mitigate potential problems. Replacing the lead is not recommended, and I'm not really thrilled at that idea anyway. My heart was jumpy and irritated for a year after implantation and the last thing I want is to go through the cath lab and implantation and healing all over again. It is hell.