MONDAY MORNING . HOPKINS . DAY 6
A new day begins in Baltimore. I grabbed the 7 AM shuttle. Sun shining. Colleen awake and reading email on her iPad when I get to her room. No food for her until after the pacemaker procedure scheduled for 2:45 this afternoon in the EP (Electro-Physiology) lab. The EP lab, we've been cautioned more than once, is notorious for its shifting schedules. Nevertheless, given getting bumped on this past Friday, we expect some rectification, unwise as that expectation might be.

About being rudely bumped last week, we've come to see we were told the truth about the reason--for the best outcome, the doctors wanted Colleen to lose more fluid. We thought she'd been emptied to the max. We discovered over the weekend, however, that wasn't so.

And now? Colleen just wants this upcoming, 3-4 hour surgery to be over. BTW, the bi-ventricular pacemaker  Colleen is getting today is no ordinary pacemaker. Her existing pacemaker regulates her heart's right ventricle only. Her new pacemaker will regulate both the right ventricle and the left ventricle, the lower muscular chambers of the heart responsible for pumping blood into and out of the lungs. Right now, her left ventricle pump is weak. Nor is it mping in synchrony with the right ventricle. If successful, the new pacemaker will strengthen the left ventricle, as well as bring the right and left ventricular action into synchrony. The cost of this state-of-the-art pacemaker? $70,000.