Today is my 7 year anniversary of becoming bionic.
In August of 2015, it’s likely I had a breakthrough cardiac event. I was startled awake and hopped out of bed, blacking out as soon as I was standing. I gasped back to awareness, finding myself face first on the floor with no idea how I had gotten there. Thanks to my martial arts training I had landed in a perfect front fall. While I’d turned my face so that my jaw didn’t break, I had a serious bruise on my check and likely a fracture, as well.
Whether it had been Torsades de Pointes, Ventricular Fibrillation, or just dehydration cannot be confirmed because I was not wearing a heart monitor at the time. Regardless, it was an incredibly fortunate thing that I passed out that day. That day, I woke back up. The multiple times since then however, I doubt I would have been so lucky without the defibrillator in my chest.
Becoming bionic has been truly surreal. I have a telemetry box that can send information from my device to my doctor’s office. When I go for my yearly device check, my cardiologist tests my device by increasing my heart rate with the touch of a button. While seated, my heart rate will speed up in my chest, in a way that is so unnatural it always takes my breath away. Even though it feels a bit uncomfortable, it’s pretty wild to experience. I never forget that I have my defibrillator and after this many years, it’s become a part of me. But, when it activates and controls my heart, it reminds me that I am living with a staggeringly incredible piece of technology.
I often joke that being bionic should mean that I get to be a wifi hot spot or that I should be able to charge my cell phone from it (I still say I should). But becoming bionic has made me really feel as if I live in the future. My life has been saved by a computer that lives inside me, diligently monitoring and waiting tirelessly to shock my heart out of an unnatural rhythm. This technology is complex and rapidly changing. The first ICD was only tested in a human subject in 1980. The Boston Scientific model I have has an extended battery life that had been on the market for a mere ten months when I received it. I was told then it would last me at least 11 years—it’s been seven, and it has only just started to show a decrease in battery life, leaving me with perhaps another 9 or 10 years of device monitoring left.
So on this lucky day, I try to remind myself of how incredible it all is.
My heart is battery operated and I have a computer in my chest.
Bring on the robot overlords; I’m ready.
