Colleen--you know me from another board. But I stumbled on to this one and want to weigh in. My daughter was born with major heart defects--single ventricle, transposition of the great vessels, a 12 percent coarctation of the aorta, and an atrial septal defect. She wasn't supposed to live too long, as kids with such complicated hearts usually lived only a few years and never to adulthood. But then a life-saving surgery and a new perfusion machine, which allowed surgeons to operate on as patient much longer, were developed. She had that surgery at Mayo's when she was 11. (The surgery was only done at four med centers in the U.S. at that time.) Three weeks after surgery, however, my daughter, like two-thirds of the kids, developed a post-op rhythm problem, superventricular tachycardia, (SVT) because the surgeons had to cut through the atrial sinus node and the scarring affected the heart rhythm. When she was 14, her rhythm problems exacerbated. Since her one and only ventricle was bradycardic, she had a pacemaker implant to keep her ventricle at a normal rhythm and medications to control the SVT. Seven years later, when the meds were no longer effective, she had two ablations--the first slowed and changed the SVT and the second eliminated it. She still has a pacemaker for the ventricle, and she's had several replacements. She just turned 47 last month, and has had pacemaker for 33 years. She is doing well and lives a normal, active life. She met her husband in their university marching band (Yes, she marched and played a trumpet at the same time.) Now he has his doctorate in music and is the marching band and pep band director at another major university. She designs marching band formations for him and other band directors. Just wanted to encourage the new pacemaker recipients on this board. You can live a normal life with a pacemaker. She got her first one in 1989.