A Life in Heart Beats-Two Weeks and Counting

This is a guest blog by my little brother, Kenneth who, like me, is a philosopher at heart – but a much better mathematician!

DATE 10/10/24  Two weeks Post Op and a Life in Heart Beats

Yesterday was the second week of recovery after my pacemaker implant or my Ticker-Kicker installation as I call it. The post op pain was manageable and receded rather quickly. Soreness and bruising were up next but that also made a fairly early exit. So now I’m left with some discomfort trying to sleep without laying on my left side and remembering not to use my left arm for much of anything. That restriction is forcing me to be rather restive, although I am walking on a treadmill daily – a little longer each day.

There is therefore a large portion of the day left for reading, studying, drawing, and writing. There is also time to think. Thinking about how I got here brought me to considering my heart beats.

My clock is now running at an average rate of 72 beats per minute (twice what I was getting!) How many is that per hour? 4320 beats per hour. Beats  per day? 103,680. Beats in a year? 37,893,200.

My Ticker-Kicker has a battery life of approximately seven years. (7-12 or 5-10 are the values I see most in articles.) So I have been given an additional 264,902,400 heart beats (or to age 76 or so) before goin in for an overhaul.

My 68.76 years is 2,605,157,500 heart beats so the new heart starter hopefully gives a 10% increase or more in life expectancy.

I have always started my days thanking God for His Son, salvation, the promise of eternal life, another day, my wife and life. (Sadly, the order sometimes depends on how well my other heart starter – coffee – is kicking in and my brain is working!)

I think I’ll extend my list a bit to include a skilled surgeon and some miracle technology that has let me live longer –

One Heartbeat At A Time.

Blessings from Kara Beth and Kenneth