If you've never had one of those moments that makes you realize that whatever is going on in your life is not anywhere near as bad as it could be, pull up a chair. Martha and I both had one of those moments, over the course of a whole-day conference about Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators, otherwise known as ICDs. You and I usually just know them as pacemakers, but there's a whole lot more going on with these devices than just keeping your heart dancing on the rhythm you want it to. And a LOT of reasons why people end up with them in the first place. One of the speakers at the breakfast meeting was 13 when she had her first pacemaker installed; she "passed out," which is to say she stopped breathing and almost died at track practice. When her mother finally got the call, the message was "if you want to see your daughter alive again, you'll come to the hospital NOW!" No threat, just fact; her track coach administered CPR, which kept her alive until the EMTs got there. This young woman, of course, is not the first to have ever had such an incident, you hear about them all the time. Sometimes with more tragic results. The good news is, if you're paying attention to your child's health it doesn't have to happen. There is a condition called Long QT Syndrome, which essentially manifests itself as a cardiac rhythmic anomaly, and similar conditions, which can be tested for if your child or student shows symptoms of it. I would minimally implore all of my teacher friends to check out the information from the following link, and be informed about how you can save a child's life. And if you're a teacher, and you don't know CPR, or need to take a refresher, DO IT. Ask yourself what more you need hanging over your head.

http://www.sads.org/

On the subject of ICDs and defibrillators if your child, or spouse, or whoever, needs one, everyone, not just the person fitted with it, is gonna have to learn how to live with it. One of the physicians in attendance was talking about how things like competitive cheerleading are not necessarily out the window, but if you wear a pacemaker or ICD, and participate in competitive cheer, you'll have to be content to be on the "base," and not be the "flier," who goes zooming through the air, propelled skyward by their teammates, in some cases. Electromagnetic Interference, from many sources is a problem as well. The following is good information about the devices themselves, and the truly crucial portion of a pacemaker or defibrillator, as with many things, is that you're not alone. Many people have had them installed, and although there are still issues with them, they generally qualify, I would say, as a solution that beats dying by a long shot. And they've come a long way from the earliest external pacemakers that came out back in the late 50s.

http://www.medtronic.com/our-therapies/defibrillators/index.htm

http://www.medtronic.com/our-therapies/pacemakers/index.htm

Back to the lecture at hand, the conference really drove home the point that no matter how much you think you're dealing with, there's usually someone else in the world who makes your condition look like exactly what it is; small stuff. And if you have an answer to what your problem is, whether there's a solution or therapy available for it or not, you're at least that far ahead; there was at least one patient at the conference whose arrythmia could not be attributed to any particular condition in her that physicians were aware of; never mind the patients whose defibrillators had gone off, which most of them described as "like being kicked in the chest as hard as possible." Most remember exactly the moments when their defibrillators went off, and the result of these life-saving jolts usually still elicits some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And awful as that all sounds, still......consider the option.