Hi Everyone:
Just wanted you all to know, my surgery is schuled for thursday/28th august. Been waiting a couple months now, to have this done. Finally hoping to get back to my normal self.
Will update you all when its all over. Wish me luck, need lots of prayers. Am a little anxious, and nervous. I Am telling only you in this group, don't want to worry my family. Thanks to all for your support. Hope everyone else has a great week. Talk to you soon.
Rayan.

 

Don’t know if this is a real problem, but interference with pacemakers is at least theoretically possible. There now seems to be a fix.

www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/688451/AntiTerrorism
_Cloaking_DeviceFor_Pacemakers.html

 

i recieved my PM in may 08. after a few weeks i started felling funny heart beats. i went to emerg and they hooked me up . apparantly i have PVC. drives me foolish. comes and goes. can i expect to always have this. thanks for any response.


Buck

 

I'm new at this internet stuff, so I hope I'm using this site right. Thankyou everyone for your great ideas and education. I've got a long way to go understanding what's just happened to me. I know being able to put it to words will help the medical people understand any changes and in turn help me too. As far as this financial mess goes, it looks like we'll get a home equity loan, (we've done this before and are all paid off now). We own our home. Less stress to just pay them all off. But, I will check out many of your suggestions next week. Thanks again,, everyone!!
janet

 

I'm wondering if there is anyone else out there that has a huge hospital bill with no insurance. PM put in unexpectedly 4 wks ago. No insurance, haven't seen a Dr in years, didn't need to. Now the bill's around 27,000. We were told by many, many people, including hospital staff, that the hospital "would work with us" and "we could pay what we could afford as long as we made regular paymts. This is not the case. The only way they will accept paymts directly is if we paid the entire bill off in 1 year at $1,700 per month. We are middle to low class, one income family. Financial aid may give us 10% off, we're stilling waiting for the final bill. The other option is to get a loan. They will not accept any paymts directly under $1700 or...

 

Holy Mackerel....what a smart idea.

Interventional cardiologist Ali Massumi, MD was the first physician in the U.S. to replace a pacemaker enclosed in a mesh envelope. The envelope, made of standard surgical mesh, is embedded with two antibiotic agents that provide site-specific antibiotic protection for the pacemaker, which is implanted just below the collarbone. This prevents the need for systemic antibiotics (taken orally). The device is made by TyRx Pharma, Inc., which recently received FDA approval.

“Pacemakers are placed in an area where there aren’t a lot of blood vessels, so systemic antibiotics may not reach the specific area. Replacing leads which run from the pacemaker to the heart can be quite difficult be...

 

The Bad News Fairy has visited me again and I'm not coping well at all.

It's almost a year since I got sick, thought it was done with and moving forward, happily.

Had a bad bout of pain, thought it was gallstones but it's a growth in my Common Bile duct.

Doesn't seem to be malignant but won't know til it's out.....

I will be having a big, nasty surgery shortly, followed by another 2 or 3 months of recovery...surgeon says 2, GP says 3+ !!

Must admit, I do not feel fabulous, seem to be falling down the rabbit hole......I know, don't blame the rabbits.

For a stoic person, I'm falling apart.....sorry to whine, wish the Bad News Fairy would vanish!


Bionic Beat

click to read more...

 

Hi All,
Well this has been a week or so I hope not to repeat anytime soon.
For 9 days I have been in and out of A. Fib. lasting anywhere from 5 hours to 28 hours. After my old medication (Rythmol) stopped working I was switched to 125 mg of Flecainide every 12 hours 2 years ago. It has served me well with only a very few break-throughs now and then. Then the week from hell started.

I called my cardiologist to have his approval to increase this medication to 150 mg. every 2 hours which is the maximum dose. I was unable to get through to him so left several messages. No response. This is very unlike him.

After about an 8 hour reprieve, I woke up inYesterday in A. Fib again and went to emerg. The first pair of ...

 

I would like to know if there is any law or provision made that alows people with a PM not to have to wear a seat belt. It lays on my PM and irritates me.

BUCK

 

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my good news from going into my cardiac doctor. About a week ago I went into see him because I kept feeling like I was going to faint and was short of breath. It was really random though. Turns out it isn't my heart but my blood pressure. So, my doctor lowered my Toperal (Yeah! claps hands). It seems to have helped some relieve some of my tiredness, but I'm still having the blood pressure problems. So he scheduled a treadmill. I absolutely hate them but fear the drug induced ones more. This one wasn't so bad.

Yesterday, I went in for a treadmill. When they did the echocardiogam, he said the undamaged part of my heart is working perfectly and is now normal sized where it had been slightly...

 

Dear mitiger

Have your Cardiologist or pacemaker tech readjust the
pacer. I'm a runner and had to have it readjusted twice before I could resume normal running. I later had the "rate response" adjusted so I could start up running/biking faster.

 

On July 23 I had aortic valve replaced. this was from a bicuspid valve I was born with...discovered a few years ago.

A few days after procedure, heart rate dipped and I was put on external "pacer", didn't want pacemaker but on July 30 had 2 lead pacemaker put in for "heart block".

Still a little sore in left breast but incision and bump are minimal.

The AVR was so major that recovering from the open heart has been taking the front row, but now am really wondering about this pacemaker. My pulse is fine according to nurses that are seeing me regularly and i feel fine.

I go to Boston Sci pacemaker tech sept 10 and he will check out function and supposedly set pacemaker down to save battery lif...

 

Hi everyone:
Want to thank you all for your support, am so glad that I found this group. Hope everyone is having a good day.
Now my question about, low-sodium foods. I have a hard time finding anything with low sodium. I did find some soup by campbells, some broth, but that is all that i could find, Anyone else have this problem, or in your area there is a health food store. Curious what everyone else is using?

 

Hi Everyone,

My Mom Delores is having a lump removed of her breast tomorrow. The Dr. did a biopsy and decided that it needs to come out now.

Please keep her in you thoughts and prayers tomorrow at 11 am CST

Thanks
Denise

 

Pookie asked me to post this again.
Revisions and corrections are welcome.
This list is for club use so you can copy and paste it to a word processor if you like. I am just keeping it until the club takes it over. Later Charlie

AF or A Fib = Atrial Fibrillation
AV = AtrioVentricular
ApVp = Atrial Paced Ventricle Paced, This is the rate response mode
ApVs = Atrial paced Ventricle sensed
AsVp = Atrial sensed Ventricle paced
AsVs = Atrial sensed Ventricle sensed
BBB= Bundle Branch Block
BP = Blood Pressure
BPM = Beats Per Minute, might see it at B/M
BRADY = Bradyarrhythmia or Bradycardia (slow heartrate)
CHF = Congestive Heart Failure
CHD =
COPD = Chronic ...

 

Well it's been a long road. Seven years trying drugs only to have them fail. I tried Tikosyn last week and before I even left the hospital, it stopped working. I now have a pacemaker that was implanted last week.
It was a blast. I requested that they not sedate me so I was awake for the entire procedure. We laughed, and joked, and jammed to my doc's IPod. We made many funny references to Monty Python. After they wheeled me back to my room, I had felt as if I had just been to a party. I know this sounds strange, but it was a night I will never forget, and a wonderful time. I figured it was a life changing moment and I might as well bring it on with a bang. So we did.

 

Hi Pacer Girl,
I've been reading your posts and can completely understand what you're going through. I don't care what anyone says but having a pacer implanted whether it be on an emergency basis or not is a life changing event.

You read articles and they all say oh it's nothing, you're in and out and it's done under a light anesthetic. But then you get home and say what happened and I think you're in a state of shock. I know I was. You have physical symptoms and may emotional symptoms you can't explain.

I don't think you ever get used to the fact you have this little machine in your body keeping your heart going. Oh yes you adjust to it and probably don't think about it a lot but I don't care what anyone...

 

I've had a pacer for eight weeks now. I have a job interview tomorrow for a part time warehouse position. It will involve a lot of heavy lifting. I enjoy doing this work. I've done it for years. I have been cleared by my Dr to do this type of work. I'm wondering if I should mention the pacer during my interview. I have a feeling once I do my application will go in the trash. I don't need the job. It's just to pick up some extra cash. I've always worked two jobs and I don't want to stop now. Has anyone else run into this? Will companies discriminate due to the pacer?

 

Hi guys, I was feeling emotional... for awhile today. Almost gave it up to go cry in the bathroom at work! Well, I decided that just isn't who I am. I won't hide in any bathroom, especially the one at work.

So I have a lot to do... so does everyone except the ones at the rest home. (no offense intended).

So tomorrow is a new day, I am attending classes at Wichita State University. The boss has gone on vacation (U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS!) and his classes begin the day he leaves.... so I "get" to go and fill in for him. At first the idea scared me half to death! Now... I just figure I might learn something. The one class is about the civil war and slavery. Very interesting material for many different reasons. The other cla...

 

An article in the Daily Mail, (UK) 20th August,2008.

www.dailymail.co.uk (headlines)

tells a very interesting story about possible computer hackers being able to interfer with those PM patients settings,who use telephone contact for them, and the possible use of a "cloaker" to prevent it.