When Delilah first saw the canine cardiologist for her heart arrhythmia, it was recommended she wear a Holter Monitor, to see if we could get an idea of what might be contributing to the arrhythmia, and what we could do to help her.

Initially I said, “No.” Mostly because they wanted me to sign a waiver saying I would replace the $1,400 machine if Delilah broke and it, but the other reason was I couldn’t see bundling her up in the heat and humidity of the summer.

As luck would have it, we went in for a check-up August 29th. Delilah’s arrhythmias were down to six in a four minute period, which was really good. Dr. Morris mentioned the Holter Monitor again, and since it was fairly cool with low humidity, and I had already decided I was working 1/2 a day, I said, “Go ahead.”

First Dana had to shave Delilah. Then she put six leads on her, three on each side of her body. Once that was done, Dana attached wires to the leads, and taped the leads and wires to Delilah’s body.

After that was done, the Holter Monitor was placed on Delilah’s back, and more tape was added.

Once everything was taped good, Dana put Delilah in a Thundershirt.

She advised me when removing the device, to not use scissors because I could inadvertently cut the wires.

Delilah didn’t seem to mind wearing the Holter or the Thundershirt at all while I was with her, but I was nervous about leaving her.

Still, I had to go into work, and so I did.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got home, that Delilah was still in her Thundershirt, and she didn’t seem put out in any way.

She had two walks and two meals, and when we hit the 24-hour mark, it was time to remove the Holter Monitor and leads.

Houston we have a problem.

The first thing I noticed when the Thundershirt came off was a wire, just hanging there.

The connector wasn’t there. Just a wire.

Well shit, that can’t be good!

There was nothing else to be done, I had to remove the leads.

Dana had mentioned rubbing alcohol on the adhesive, but I was hesitant to use it just in case any of the leads had agitated Delilah.

Hubby and I thought maybe some Vaseline, but I thought I’d take the tape off first, then determine how to remove the leads.

Unfortunately, the leads were coming off with the tape. I felt bad pulling on the tape, and while I was very careful removing it, I was pulling on poor Delilah, but she was a real trooper, she did flinch a couple of times, but she still let me remove them.

After they were all removed, I found the connector. It was still attached to one of the leads.

Hubby was able to attach the connector to the wire, and I packaged the whole thing up and sent it back to the Cardiologist.

Once they had received it, I called up and explained what happened to Dana. We just couldn’t figure out HOW that one lead became disconnected from the wire. Our hope was the wire came off towards the end of the 24-hour period, and there would be enough data to give the Dr. what she needed.

The best laid plans, sometimes just don’t work out.

Dana called me last week to let me know, the entire 24-hours was complete static. They got absolutely nothing.

We will have to repeat the test. I have her scheduled for the middle of October, but I’m going to see if I can get her in earlier.

Dana has assured me, we will NOT be using the same monitor and there is no charge to repeat the test.

Let’s hope that connector stays where it needs to.

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