My daughter is 14 years old and got her first pacemaker 2 weeks ago. Last night she came to me complaining of shortness of breath and felt as if her heart was to slow. After a little while she felt better, but complained the muscles around the pm site hurt. Her pm is set to fire at 80. Do these symptoms mean that the pm fired? Although I am used to all her cardiac problems - she has had OH 4 times because of a congenital heart defect -this is a whole new ball game.

 

 

If she is short of breath, she should probably be seen. It's probably something as simple as adjusting the settings, but it should be checked out.

Did you check her pulse when she said it was slow? If it is truly below her minimum setting- by that I mean 65 or 70, not 78 or 79- it's possible a lead is dislodged. Interrogating the pm and an xray are the easiest way to tell for sure.

The muscle soreness is just part of healing. It will take a while longer before it's all gone.

As for how it feels when the pm fires, the pm is simply mimicking what the heart would do on its own if it worked the way it should. The charge it makes is very very small and most of us never feel it working. I can tell mine is working because I feel good! If it suddenly stopped, I'd feel like I did before I got it.

I hope she's ok! I'd probably give the dr a quick call and let them know what's going on, let them decide if they want to see her.

 

Hi I was short of breath without mine on, been on now since last Oct, and feel great.

HH

 

But since I am pacing very little I do sometimes realize when I am having an event that probably is going to kick my PM in. Had one last week. Happened to be wearing my HRM at the time and saw my HR start going down lower and lower... bottomed out at 52 (my pacer kicks in at 50) and a few minutes later I was back to low 60's (my normal rate for when I am not active, my RHR is in the low 60's / high 50's). Didn't notice the PM kick in but figured it did.

 

I had experienced shortness of breath after PM implant 2/10. Since then I have had my settings changed 5
times and now feel fine. One of my biggest issues was the tech forgot to turn on my rate response. Certainly needs to be checked! Best of luck!

Heidi