ZioPatch and common sense

Last Thursday I received in the mail a ZioPatch monitor from iRhythm Technologies that was sent in by the good folks at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute. I'm wearing it for 8 days, and the results will be provided to Dr. Natale who will use the data along with the results of the TEE I'll have performed there in early December, as part of my follow-up from the ablation he performed that isolated my LAA.

The ZP is kind of like a large “band-aid” with a plastic oval in the middle of the “band-aid”, about 2’”by 1.5” in depth, that holds the electronics to record your rhythm. I specifically asked for this device as opposed to wearing a holter, as I assumed it's easier to wear, with less hassle etc. I also assumed a more traditional holter would come with at least 4 electrodes that would need to be attached and also a somewhat bulky unit that would require recharging every night and leads that easily tangle. I think I saw mention from another member that the holder monitor from TCAI that they were wearing only had 2 electrodes. If so, I wish I would have asked more questions before requesting the ZP.

Last fall for 60 consecutive days I wore a monitor that needed nightly recharging, was bulky, and had IIRC, 6 electrodes. It needed the riveted stickies replaced every 3 days or so, and by the end of the 2 month period I had highly irritated skin that bled in the areas where the electrodes attached. The ZP seemed like a breeze.

The Thursday I received the ZP, I was pressed for time but wanted to get the patch on and activated. The sooner I started the monitoring, the sooner it would be over. So I tore into the packaging, skimmed the directions and got started. Kind of a stupid mistake for me not to be a little more patient. iRhythm provides a strange little razor that doesn’t look like a razor, for shaving the application area, as well as a debriding tool, that is really just a circular patch of sandpaper. It looks like a sticker. The directions are colorful, but to me, more effort was put into the fancy layout and packaging of the skin preparation tools than the actual directions. I read the directions for the circular debridement tool and applied them to the funky piece of plastic with blue plastic grooves that turned out to be the razor. Again, kind of a mistake. I irritated my skin pretty good, and cut myself bad enough that there was a stream of blood running down my chest. Then I applied the final step, the wet wipes, that burned pretty good and also cleaned up the blood. I didn’t need to use the debriding thingy as my chest was sufficiently prepared. I got the patch applied, and it’s held fine since, but I do have a good amount of blood under the patch in places. I’m looking forward to taking the ZP off on Friday evening.

The TL;DR for the ZioPatch:

Read the dang directions and take your time applying it and doing the skin prep. The little white plastic thingy with blue grooves on it actually has an embedded razor blade and doesn’t look much like an actual razor. The orange circular sticker like thingy is really kind of just antiseptic sandpaper for use after shaving the skin.