Had a St Jude pacemaker for five years now and have annual checkups to see how the P M battery is coping
My Question is: - what exactly do they check? And how do they know when to change the P M
I am fully dependant on the little devil and the thought of having a new PM is starting to become urgent

 

 

Hi Stuart,

I don't actually know all of the things that they check in a pacemaker appointment, but a big one is how much battery power is left. Since they can also tell, on average, how much power your pacemaker uses to pace your heart, they can calculate approximately how many months of life your battery has left. When I was under 1 year of life left in mine, my doctor started seeing me for checkups every 3 months, and when it had about 3 months of battery life left they scheduled the surgery.

I think most people experience the battery replacement as being easier than the first one, especially if they can use the old leads.

I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best.

Jen

 

I have had two replacement PM's with no problems. As jehn says, they check the battery level, increase the frequency of these checks and then set an internal alarm in the PM which will activate, well before the battery gets too low, to warn you so that you can go back to the consultant in good time to arrange the replacement. Best wishes.

 

Next time you go for a checkup, ask them for a full report. You can get a report of every check they have ever done. this way you can kinda watch and figure how fast your battery is going down. Do your homework. Best of Luck to you.