Sent to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Emergency Room Monday after a heart monitor worn for two weeks in May reported a suspected heart blockage. Turned out to be more of an electrical problem between the upper and lower parts of the heart, still considered a danger, and they scheduled installation of a pacemaker on Tuesday.

Woke up Tuesday afternoon with pain in my groin (insertion point of the tiny wireless pacemaker) that traveled through a vein to a chamber of the heart) but none in my chest. Tests with a monitor that communicated with the new pacemaker showed it was working, as expected, and my heart rate was no longer erratic.

Tests and monitoring continued Wednesday and they got me up on my feet for the first time on Thursday morning and the heart appeared to be OK before releasing me shortly after noon so I could drive home, cautiously, arriving as the rain was falling around 2 p.m. I had driven down on Monday, against doctor’s advice, because short notice made it difficult to find a ride. I felt OK and had no problem but was tired when I made the long trek with a cane from the parking spot of the ER garage to the elevator and then a long walk to the ER entrance, where they put me in a wheelchair for the check in, triage and examination before admission. Thankfully, they took me back to my pickup in that location so I could ease into it and take a careful drive home.

The pacemaker has a 10-year battery and a monitor on my bedside tables monitor keeps tab on its performance, transmits its results and notifies the doctors if there is a problem.

I’ve trusted Roanoke Memorial since surgeons saved my life in the motorcycle accident suffered more than a decade ago, but I feel that I cannot trust the ER at New River Valley Carilion after they mishandled a erroneous diagnosis of meningitis that placed me in quarantine on Dec. 15 of last year while test after test said the diagnosis was wrong. They then moved me to Radford Medical Rehab for treatment for symptoms I did not have and it took intervention from my Carilion wound doctor, who took over treatment of a leg wound that a New River surgeon mismanaged two years ago, to intervene to get me released and returned home on Jan.23. He is the only doctor at New River that I trust.

For what ever is left of my future, my wife and I trust Carilion Roanoke Memorial and their adjoining offices at Riverside 3 to keep me alive.