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God or goddess, fate or whatever it is you believe in, has a mysterious way of working. At 47, I'm still trying to figure it all out. Nearly 9 years ago, my world was rocked with heart failure. I recovered but was surprised two years later with a recurrence. For those unintiated in the world of heart disease, heart failure is when your heart stops pumping the way its supposed to. My heart ejection rate (normally 50% or higher) dropped to 35%. I was placed on a mountainous pile of medication and all sorts of rules on what I couldn't and shouldn't do.

Fast forward to two months ago. I noticed my stamina had again gone downhill. I went to bed exausted, could barely manage walking outside, felt bloated. But being the 'strong-willed' type, I pretended it wasn't a big deal and continued on with work and play as if nothing was happening. One night, when I could no longer manage to sleep in my bed, I told my husband I had to go to the emergency room.

Off we trudged. I thought they would just remove the excess water from my body, something they had done many times before. But this time it was different. My heart was doing flip flops on the monitors. The nursing staff dashed in, I guess expecting to find me dead. My ejection rate was 21% and I was a candidate for an ICD, a diffibrillator. That means two things. When the device detects that the heart is not pumping effectively it would send electrical signals to my heart to help regulate it. If it should detect a very fast rate, it would send an electrical jolt that would stop the heart and when it restarted, the heart rate would normalize.

I was scheduled for Tuesday to receive the device. The device was put in, but on Thursday, I went back in. They couldn't insert the third lead without opening up my chest and removing one of my ribs. All went well on the second try and I was released from the hospital on May 20th. My chest looks like a T-rex took a swipe at me. And I'm now an official bionic woman. I have to watch out for cell phones, anti-theft doorways and airport security. I get frisked instead of having to walk through.

My son has already had a show and tell about me. My mom has a computer in her chest - isn't that cool?

Don't get me wrong. It is cool. Its great that if my heart should stop, I'll be brought back immediately. Its far better then the alternative. Its also amazing that there are many resources for people with ICD or pacemaker devices on the web. Its also amazing that I'm still here despite a disease that should have killed me 4 years ago. Technology and medicine. It figures that I would have a computer in my chest.

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