Welcome

My journey with A “Reveal LINQ Insertable Cardiac Monitor”

 

 Image result for insertable cardiac monitor

Where it all started

This all started back when I was a teenager and I first started my periods.  It was a Saturday morning and I was meant to be going to my friend’s swimming party but then I started feeling faint, funny like my head was going to pop, I was getting very hot, my vision went all blurry but I just kept tell my mum I was fine and I was going to the party. Then bang, I knocked myself out by walking into the door frame of my bedroom, next thing I remember was opening my eyes to my mum and Auntie who was a nurse, holding a cold flannel on my head.   

I just put it down to blood pressure etc.… due to the changes in my body, but little did I know I would have it continue for a number of years.   

I just carried on with normal everyday life and was able to tell when the episodes (if that’s what you can call them) were coming on so I was able to make sure I was in a safe place. 

There was no pattern, no particular time they were happening so I decided I would go to my doctors to seek advice and see if he had any options as to what could be causing them.  He sent me for blood tests, ECG’s and I had to wear a 24 hour monitor to see if it picked anything up such as irregular heartbeat, palpitations etc but it all came back clear.   

They then seem to disappear for a while but it was always playing on my mind, my doctor was considering taking my license off me incase it happened whilst driving but luckily it never came to that.     

Then one morning back in 2015 I  got up to start getting ready for work and could feel this episode coming on, I went in the bathroom ran my wrist under cold water and sat on the toilet and started to feel better after a few minutes, so I got up and started walking back to the bedroom and that was as much as I remember until I woke up with my head over the stairs, I don’t remember anything at all.  All this happened while my husband was asleep in bed just a few meters away and he never heard a thing.   I knew then I had to get to the bottom of this as it could have ended a lot worse.  Once I got to work I made another appointment with my doctor and explain what happened and he referred me back to the hospital for more tests and investigations with a cardiologist, it was then decided after seeing a consultant that I would have a reveal device insert to monitor my heart.

The Procedure

I had my appointment come through for beginning of June 2016 to be in for day surgery at Solihull hospital.  I was given a local anesthetic in my chest to numb the area for them to insert the device, all while been awake. I was told it was going to take approximately 30 mins in total.

I’m left now with a tiny scar which is barely noticeable

I will have the device for 3 years as that’s as long as one battery lasts at a time and is worth £2000, which sounds like a lot for such a small device but it’s got a job to do, but you don’t even know it is there unless you run your finger over my skin and you can feel it.  A lot of people are creeped out by it but I love it and just sit there and mess with it and move it around.  I must have 6 monthly or yearly appointments to check it but I can also do all my downloads at home with my home device that get sent straight through to the hospital.  

It is a simple quick 5 minute task as is a case of picking up the held hand device, placing it on my scar and pressing the button then within a matter of seconds everything will be downloaded and sent to the hospital all pain-free.

I’m in my second year now of having the insertable cardiac monitor and only have one year left and by next June I may be free from this device.

  • Would love to hear your stories if you suffer too and what procedures were taken for you.  

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