Good News! I'm Just Crazy!

After last week's little freak out, I visited the electrophysiologist yesterday to see whether I had in fact been experiencing shocks from Zappy MkII or not, due to the several times in the last few weeks I've woken up feeling like it has happened, or is about to happen.

The good news is, I haven't been trying to die, at least, not since I was on the table. Yay!

The bad news is, looks like I'm a nutcase. Not that we weren't already aware of that...

I'm not **completely** insane, though - there have been some arrhythmias, just nothing potentially fatal (I love how lightly they phrase that...), and apparently nothing that should be serious enough for me to be sitting bolt upright and calling out in distress in the night. did

They did a couple of tests on the device and also looked at the settings, and one of them didn't seem quite right but they knew there must be a reason for it. My usual doctor, you see, is away on sabatical so they decided the status quo set by the Grand Poo-Bah Electrophysiologist of the World (or at least, of Australia) should remain for the time being.

So, my best guess is that... (time for a story!) well, anyone who's ever slept in the same room as me may know that every so often I do weird shit in my sleep, especially when I'm over-tired, stressed out or uncomfortable. True story. Usually it's talking out loud about the sheep out in the paddock or the traffic management required for an asphalting job; or trying to make the bed while I'm still in it or putting clothes on if I'm not wearing any (sorry, overshare); once in a while I'll go for a wee stroll about the house; and, on special occasions, I put out fires or kill snakes from the comfort of my own bed, much to the bemusement of my bedfellow. I have a great old time of it and only wake up when something in my surroundings doesn't match  what I'm seeing in my dream (like a light switch not being in the right place, or a button not being where it's supposed to be), or frustrates me, or confuses me. So chances are I felt those arrhythmias in my sleep and then dreamt about the worst case scenario and reacted accordingly, and my reaction woke me up.

Suffice it to say I slept like a baby last night because I wasn't quite so paranoid. It's not to say that the fear has gone completely. It's always hanging over me, but sometimes, like recently, it just becomes bigger and uglier and gets the better of me. I probably need therapy...

Anyway, as promised, here is the post-surgery photo, from after the dressing came off. Since then it has formed a pinky-purple line down the incision, but nothing as bad as the old scar which was pretty bad. It's the line that runs right down the centre of the picture, not the shorter lines around it which are where my skin was wrinkled under the dressing, and which have now faded. Next time I have the tape off I'll take a photo (a note about the tape - last time they didn't tell me to tape the wound and this time they did, and the new scar is about 1mm across 6 weeks after surgery where the old one was about 6mm across. Much better result, so moral of the story - if you have a deep wound and care about scarring, keep it taped for a couple of months to take the pressure off the scar tissue. Brought to you by your favourite wannabe plastic surgeon ;).

Have a great weekend, people. I'm aiming for my next post to be about food, not about serious stuff. Mmm, speaking of which, I'm off to get an apricot upside-down cake!