So who has pacemaker first hand knowledge?

[RogerDat]

Recent general illness of a flu like nature, ended up with cardiac complications. My heart slowed way down and mimicked a heart attack, with a couple of periods of 0 beats for 10 & 20 second intervals. I was pretty sick, and very suddenly. I did not have a heart attack, just an extreme version of the heart slowdown/blood pressure drop that is common when one is sick and feels faint.

Dr. says all they can do is implant pacemaker or it could happen again (whatever "it" was that happened this time) Seems like a lot of solution for what seems like a pretty isolated and temporary situation. On the other hand heart not beating is generally not a good thing.

Wondering what the experience of other members might be with pacemakers. Or good questions to ask.

[Fergie]

While I do not have a pacemaker myself, I work in Telemetry and deal with patients quite frequently that do have pacemakers.

Assuming you handle the surgery and implantation well, your quality of life will improve significantly. Pacemakers today are at the forefront of cardiac therapies, especially when you start to include Automatic Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators(AICDs). Old pacemakers had single nodes, one voltage and worked at the same BPM all the time. Now, pacemakers lead wires can be dual node, implanted in in the atria or ventricles, have wide ranges of BPM and the ability to shock your heart out of a bad rhythm.

If you have only seen your PCP, I would suggest finding a cardiologist or a cardiac electrophysiologist, with emphasis on the latter as they are experts at just this type of thing.

Feel free to ask any question you might have or send me a PM about it if you'd like.

Gavin

[Skunk1]

I have no experience but I made the nice trip to the ER today in an ambulance from work. Chest pains,dizzy, sweating and passed out twice. After the rest of the afternoon in the hospital getting poked, prodded, pics and and hooked up to every machine there they found nothing. Told me to go home, take a decongestant, eats banana and let them know if it happens again (seriously). I don't understand medicine at all any more. I would do some internet research (problem is believing or not). And ask your questions from there. Hopefully some folks on here chime in with some help. Hope everything goes well for you.

[Fergie]

Just curious, but do you recall if it was related to atrial fibrillation, bradycardia(HR below 60 BPM) or some kind of cardiac resynchronization therapy?

[Fergie]

I have no experience but I made the nice trip to the ER today in an ambulance from work. Chest pains,dizzy, sweating and passed out twice. After the rest of the afternoon in the hospital getting poked, prodded, pics and and hooked up to every machine there they found nothing. Told me to go home, take a decongestant, eats banana and let them know if it happens again (seriously). I don't understand medicine at all any more. I would do some internet research (problem is believing or not). And ask your questions from there. Hopefully some folks on here chime in with some help. Hope everything goes well for you.

That is unfortunate and I hope you get to feeling better. I would hope a better explanation is given as to how your labs were, how your EKG was and your other tests.

I'm guessing that your labs showed that you had something called hypokalemia, hence being told to eat a banana. Cardiac function and overall well-being are dependent on many different electrolytes, and cardiac function is heavily reliant on potassium for performance.

Given what modern medicine can detect with labs and EKGs, I'm sure that an MD would have had you admitted if they saw something concerning. You may want to follow up with your PCP to make sure everything looks good.

[TheCelt]

I developed double pneumonia in 2008. The virus that caused the pneumonia also attacked my heart causing a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy. They installed a pacemaker/defibrillator to assist my heart. I am thankful that it kept me alive but it hasn't been without a drawback or two. I feel like I have an icepick buried in my chest pretty much all the time. You get used to it but it's there. Once it is installed that's it, it's always going to be there as the leads attach permanently to your heart muscles. If you have Atrial or Ventricular fibrillation it will keep you alive.

[RogerDat]

Just curious, but do you recall if it was related to atrial fibrillation, bradycardia(HR below 60 BPM) or some kind of cardiac resynchronization therapy?

Bradycardia - at least that is what they think. I guess that is sort of what bothers me, no real idea of the initial trigger. One minute I'm fine the next I'm covered with sweat, dizzy and nauseated. Passed out. Followed by chest pressure and pain/numbness down the arms.

During the ambulance ride and later at ER my heart just stopped, in the ambulance it restarted before they could respond with the paddles. In ER the doctor just gave my chest a sharp thump with his finger tips while they were getting the crash cart and that worked so the other times it happened in ER they just re-started me like a Chrysler with a bad starter - give it a whack on the solenoid.

[Fergie]

Well, your heart has its own electrical conduction system that powers it. There are redundancies built in to it that will keep it pumping even when the primary and secondary systems fail to fire. However, each successive point is less efficient at what it does.

Seriously, and I cannot emphasize this enough, find a respected heart doc in your area and go see them. ER docs are great, but specialists are better. Please see one ASAP!

[sparky45]

Sounds more like SSS; Sick Sinus Syndrome. Here is a description of the disorder: Sick sinus syndrome comprises a variety of conditions involving sinus node dysfunction and commonly affects elderly persons. While the syndrome can have many causes, it usually is idiopathic. Patients may experience syncope, pre-syncope, palpitations, or dizziness; however, they often are asymptomatic or have subtle or nonspecific symptoms. Sick sinus syndrome has multiple manifestations on electrocardiogram, including sinus bradycardia, sinus arrest, sinoatrial block, and alternating patterns of bradycardia and tachycardia (bradycardia-tachycardia syndrome). Diagnosis of sick sinus syndrome can be difficult because of its nonspecific symptoms and elusive findings on electrocardiogram or Holter monitor. The mainstay of treatment is atrial or dual-chamber pacemaker placement, which generally provides effective relief of symptoms and lowers the incidence of atrial fibrillation, thromboembolic events, heart failure, and mortality, compared with ventricular pacemakers.
I spent 40+ years chasing the squiggly lines on a monitor and have a 1st degree heart block myself.

Bradycardia - at least that is what they think. I guess that is sort of what bothers me, no real idea of the initial trigger. One minute I'm fine the next I'm covered with sweat, dizzy and nauseated. Passed out. Followed by chest pressure and pain/numbness down the arms.

During the ambulance ride and later at ER my heart just stopped, in the ambulance it restarted before they could respond with the paddles. In ER the doctor just gave my chest a sharp thump with his finger tips while they were getting the crash cart and that worked so the other times it happened in ER they just re-started me like a Chrysler with a bad starter - give it a whack on the solenoid.

[Mr opinionated]

So who has pacemaker first hand knowledge?

I have a top of the line medtronics pace since June of 2012 i had Afib before then which caused blood clots to settle in my lower body manly my gut and upper legs my body went septic (started shutting down) and i went in to a coma for 27 days came out with uncontrollable Afib so the installed the pace maker and did a AV nob ablation to try to stop the Afib then did a normal ablation ( 8 hours on the table that's another wild story) after that to finish it up. As far as the pace maker goes its OK no big deal putting it in i was awake the whole time they slide the wire down your vein to your heart and imbed them in the heart muscle you can't raise your arms for a few weeks till the scar tissue grows to hold the wire there, a small scare on the upper left chest and a bump were the pacemaker is, but it helps the doctor a lot as he can read this smart thing and can see what my heart has done over time it records up to a years data which they can graph and see what is going on and they say the battery lasts 10 years i don't know about that.
You just have to find a doctor you trust and the same with the hospital i was lucky i lived in San Antonio and had all retired military doctors working on me and most all the nurses were medics just back from Iraq they were great and lord forbid a wife that had work in hospitals all most 30 years helps too she keep them all in line.

Hope that helps and does not scare you away from it, as i all was told my sons it just a thing and if your living right you have nothing to worries about.

MR O

[bear67]

I do not have one, but my best buddy that I spend a lot of time with has one and it has improved his life significantly. He too suffered from bradycardia (sp) and it was where he could not play golf, spend time in machine shop or just enjoy the grandkids. He now plays golf several days a week as he used to and we spend time in his machine shop or my shop doing all the projects old men need to keep our blood a boilin'. We rebuild old engines, both hit and miss and throtle governed and sometimes play with scale model engines.

He did have some adjustment time in the beginning when they would have to increase settings on his pacemaker to account for his physical activity. His wife says the thing makes him act like he is 40 again, not 84 like his drivers license says. The only drawback is Dr said he could not use welding machines any more. He told me early on that I either had to teach his wife to weld or be on call to weld his projects as needed. The wife told me to be on call as she had worked in his machine shop for all those years without running a lathe or mill and she sure was not going to learn to weld.

[Iron Whittler]

I have a pacemaker also. Problem caused by AFIB. At first, af was controlled by meds. That worked for a couple of years, then meds no longer worked. It got bad enough to put me into congestive heart failure. Repeated ambulance rides to hospital from job got me put on long term disability retirement. I went to an electrocardiophisioligist. A biventrical pacemaker with ablation was put in. Simply put, I no longer have a heart beat of my own. My heart rhythm is controlled by the pace maker. Only draw back I have noticed is limitations on what I can do due to reduced blood flow. The PLUS side is that hospital stays due to congestive heart failure was 0 in last 10 yrs. Battery replacement is running around 5 yrs. Knowing what I know now, I would do it again. Note, I will be getting 3rd. one sometime in the next month or so. I hope this was a little help for you. Best wishes to you. Dennis

[RogerDat]

Thanks all for sharing. I guess the thing that makes it sort of a tough call to me is I don't generally have any symptoms I'm aware of. Mostly a preventative thing. I'm dealing with a cardiologist, he introduced himself and followed it with "I'm the pacemaker guy". Apparently he does a fair amount of this.

Hmmm no welding was one no one thought to mention. Leaning over a running car engine came up but not arc welder. Guess I can sell he Lincoln and buy a torch rig, been awhile but it will come back I'm sure. Frankly for the critical stuff I take it to someone who still does it for a living, I've gotten pretty rusty to do critical stuff.

[TreeKiller]

I have a defib/pacemaker since 2010. i have written about it before just look under my posts. Went in for the yearly checkup this fall pacemaker is woeking 62% this year up from 60% in 2013. I ask if she could change it so I would have more emergency. Tap tap in the laptop screen and it was set.

[Fergie]

Realize too that pacemakers, while working all the time by monitoring your heart, may not actually be firing. The pacemaker can be an on demand type that only fires when it senses that the SA node isn't working properly or if you go into any odd cardiac rhythms.

Lots of options out there for how the PM can control your heart.

Also, with the tech involved now, there is real time monitoring of your heart, and if you have an event, the Dr. will most likely get some kind of alert, either at his office, or on a mobile device. This would allow them to know exactly what happened to your heart when you have an episode.

Prior to the PM install, you may also have to wear a halter monitor around your chest, providing the Dr. with similar feedback as to heart rate, rhythm, etc.

[Kent Fowler]

I have a defib/pacemaker since 2010. i have written about it before just look under my posts. Went in for the yearly checkup this fall pacemaker is woeking 62% this year up from 60% in 2013. I ask if she could change it so I would have more emergency. Tap tap in the laptop screen and it was set.

My defib went off 7 times in 15 minutes last February. Docs said first one was needed. The other six were just freebies. They tweaked the thing on a laptop and then threw me out of the hospital.

[Beerd]

Yup, I have one.
Part of a package deal I got with an aortic valve replacement last May.
I don't even know it's there.

Have them put it on the side where you don't shoulder your rifle
..





edit: I see this is my post #911, how appropriate.

[RogerDat]

Yup, I have one.
Part of a package deal I got with an aortic valve replacement last May.
I don't even know it's there.

Have them put it on the side where you don't shoulder your rifle
..





edit: I see this is my post #911, how appropriate.

Funny you should mention that about rifle, Dr. asked about that. I was asking about right vs. left shoulder since I had some surgery on the left shoulder awhile back. And he said if you shoot a rifle you don't want it on the shoulder you use for that. Nice to know he considered shooting a "normal" activity one might want to do.

[sleeper1428]

Although I don't have a pacemaker myself, my brother who is 5 years younger than myself, has had one in place for several years and has had absolutely no problems with it. After passing our in a hotel room in Reno, he was diagnosed with LBBB (Left Bundle Branch Block) and had the pacemaker put in right there in Reno. I'm not sure as to the specific type that he has but I know that it's an 'on demand' type and that its been operating continuously for a number of years, enough that they've just recently informed him that he'll need a battery change in the coming year. Personally, in November I had my stenotic aortic valve replaced along with a 4 vein CABG but I came out of surgery in normal sinus rhythm and with the exception of a couple of brief reversions to atrial fib that responded promptly to medication, I've remained in normal sinus rhythm to the present time, meaning that I probably won't require a pacemaker to be placed. But should I need one, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to have one placed.

sleeper1428

[pjames32]

I do! St Jude's pacemaker only-no defib. My heart problems started about 10 years ago with PVC's and a very low heart rate. Probably caused by a virus. I spent 3-4 years treating with meds and had 2 ventricular ablations. My heart rate was 30-40's days and would drop down in the teens at night. An alarm would not wake me in the morning. My wife said I was like waking a hibernating bear, altho I don't think she every woke a hibernating bear.
I finally got my pacer 4 years ago in my right shoulder-I'm left handed. The electrophysiologist at NM Heart Institute was very thorough in my prep. Yes, he does these all day and did not want to implant a pacer if I could get along without one.
I can no longer weld-arc, tig or mig with the pacer I have. I can still hunt. I have broken 1 lead and frayed the other 2 years ago in the gym. They were replaced which was a bigger deal than the pacer implant.
I do have a bad aortic valve that is not quite bad enough to replace, YET!
The pacer senses minor changes in heart blood temp so it kicks in harder with exercise. I am able to do 3 hours per week in the gym, but climbing and other intense exercise like chasing an elk are troublesome.
Overall, if this had happened 30-40 years ago I would be sitting in a rocker waiting to die or be dead. With the pacemaker I'm able to do MOST of what I want to do. Pacer is set at 60 and my heart rate with exercise will get a little over 100.
Get to a heart specialty hospital and find one of those young smart doc's that looks to be a teenager, but has had 12-20 years of training and tell him to do what he would do IF you were his father. Using this method I have an electrophysiologist/cardiologist who treats me like his loved father and even gave me his cell phone.
PM me of you want!
Paul James (PJ)