The Pacemaker and the Stroke.

Well as most of you know by now Grandma had a pacemaker implanted to help regulate her heart beat. Now what the pacemaker will do is allow them to help slow her heart when it gets to beating to fast. The pacemaker will not allow her heart to beat to slow. So the irregular heart beat is being helped by the pacemaker.

The night before she went in to have surgery she had a stroke that effected the right side of her brain. Her right hand doesn't quiet work as well as it once did and she has trouble with her right leg as well, But the worst is her sight, She now has to turn her head to the right instead of just looking out of the right side of her right eye. This is all stuff that will be worked on with the physiotherapist which she has appointments with in May.




Fallowing info found from
http://www.brainaustralia.org.au/stroke/effects_of_stroke

Effects of Left Hemisphere Strokes

The left hemisphere of the brain controls the movement of the right side of the body. It also controls speech and language abilities for most people. A left-hemisphere stroke often causes paralysis of the right side of the body. This is known as right hemiplegia.

Someone who has had a left-hemisphere stroke may also develop aphasia. Aphasia is a catch all term used to describe a wide range of speech and language problems. These problems can be highly specific, affecting only one part of the patient's ability to communicate, such as the ability to move their speech-related muscles to talk properly. The same patient may be completely unimpaired when it comes to writing, reading or understanding speech.

In contrast to survivors of right-hemisphere stroke, patients who have had a left-hemisphere stroke often develop a slow and cautious behavior. They may need frequent instruction and feedback to finish tasks.

Patients with left-hemisphere stroke may develop memory problems similar to those of right-hemisphere stroke survivors. These problems can include shortened retention spans, difficulty in learning new information and problems in conceptualizing and generalizing.

Fallowing info from
http://www.medicinenet.com/arrhythmia_irregular_heartbeat/page3.htm#pacemaker
This site also has a lot of interesting information on Heart Arrhythmia (Irregular Heartbeat)

What is a pacemaker?

A pacemaker is a device that sends small electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain a suitable heart rate. Pacemakers primarily prevent the heart from beating too slowly. The pacemaker has a pulse generator (which houses the battery and a tiny computer) and leads (wires) that send impulses from the pulse generator to the heart muscle. Newer pacemakers have many sophisticated features that are designed to help manage arrhythmia and optimize heart-rate-related function as much as possible.