Brand new here. I'm 57, male, have a wife and 6 kids. 18 years ago I contracted endocarditis (sp) from some dental work. I had an aortic valve implant and 10 days later a pacemaker implant.
My pacemakers seems to last about 6 years. 2nd one in 2000, 3rd one is 2006.

I now have been told by cardiologist I need to upgrade to Bi-Vent AICD because my EF is at 20%. I'm very nervous and don't know what to expect on how I will adjust to the upgraded features (being shocked). Their literature is very unsettling, talks about shocks that feel like kicks, I could randomly feel dizzy.

I don't want shocks and symptoms of dizziness. I ride motorcycles, surf, very active at work. Doctor can't predict how the pacemaker will fun...

 

Hello everyone!

I read a thread earlier this week about a member looking to get a tattoo over the ICD area and i figured i would ask my own specific question. Im 22 Years old, athletic build, and not 100% reliant on my PM. In fact, my main lead detached while playing hockey when i was 18 (i received permission to play puck from my cardiologist) and i didnt know it happened until i went for my monthly check up! I recently graduated from a 4 year school and i asked my parents if my grad gift could be a tattoo. I explained i wanted it to be religious and involve most of my upper chest (to cover the icd scar which has keloid) They didnt have a problem as long as i could convince them it wouldnt cause problems down the road.

click to read more...

 

I went back to my dr yesterday for a follow up appt for what we thought was percarditis and come to find out my dr thinks that my IST is trying to come back and that I have a waundring pacemaker up in my sinus node. 2 weeks ago when I went to him I was having symtoms of chest pain, back pain, shortness of breath and palpations and he thought for sure it was pericarditis so he put me on steroids with did not help. I have went from 95% to 85% atrial pacing in just 2 weeks ( av node still 100% paced). Yesterday on the monitor he noticed that with very little movement my heart rate shot up quickly. If i'm just sitting in a chair i'm pacing at 70 if I just laugh a little it shoots up to 100 which is why he thinks the IST is trying to reappear....

 

Not a thorough scientific study but some food for thought.

Apparently iPads and SmartCovers MIGHT put ICDs into magenet mode under some circumstances.

Impressivecwork for a 14 year old!

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20130509/ipads-could-affect-implanted-heart-devices-early-study-finds?ecd=wnl_hrt_051413&ctr=wnl-hrt-051413_ld-stry_2&mb=

 

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone on here has has a pocket revision for their pacemaker and what kind of recovery it takes. My pacemaker is about to poke through my skin, you can see lead wires and whenever something just grazes arcoss my skin it feels like a razor blade going over it. The plan is to have it put under the pectoral muscle. I have my consult with the surgeon next monday so I will be able to ask questions but I was just trying to get a little information before I go. I am pacemaker dependent now so my EP dr told me that they will have to hook up a temp PM while they work on the other one and also said that its not just a quick surgery and we also have to hope for no infection. I am just curious as to how other peop...

 

Hi All: Nice to have found this web site. My heart issues begain in 2000 with two heart attacks, one causing extensive damage to my heart and one resolved with a stent. My echos a while after the heart attacks was about 45EF. Last October my EP did another echo and found my EF had dropped to between 10-15. I was in shock. Then in late December I wound up in the local hospital for an ecoli infected gall bladder where they did a cath which showed I had my last good artery blocked at 85-90%. At this point my EP recommended I go to the University of WA heart clinc.

At UW, they did all their tests and came up with 17EF but I appeared fairly strong. They put in my PM/ICD on 4/22 which all went well. I was a little tender aro...

 

Hi ya'all... just want to ask those of you with all the experiences..Does it matter that my ICD has fallen a few cm.s along 'till it is now at the end of the wire? I'm sure that some of you have been there and done that. I do see tech next week. Thanks!! in advance. I really value your opinions. Bev of NC

 

My name is Kristen, I am 27 years old. The last few years have been really hard on me. I had an injury to my back that compressed my Vagus nerve ( no test can prove this) but I was a perfectly healthy individual before the incident. After I started going through random heart rates always to the extreme, either extremely low to extremely high, light headedness, and I started blacking out, and even on medication my problems persisted. I had a icm implanted and it caught an episode of V-tech 250 bpm for 5 minutes then my heart stopped for 2 minutes, and luckily started up again at the lower end of 30 bpm. I had a st. Jude icd implanted right away. I have had numerous inappropriate shocks, because the device started slipping and pulling on my ...

 

Hi there, I'm looking to get ahold of explanted ICD's - a couple of models in particular (St Jude Promote/Current). This is for research purposes and my firm will happily pay for the devices.

Please reach out to me if you can help.

 

Just shy of 4weeks since I was implanted. I'm having a pulling sensation around leads - Is this to be expected?

 

My g/f has an ICD that periodically gives her shocks (as intended) Please tell me about what voltage (I guess DC) these 'shocks" are. I have read several articles - ranging from 20v dc? 220 v dc?? I seriously doubt it gives anything close to 100 v as this is internal! I relate this to the mild shock people with sliver dental fillings and tinfoil touching them- that gave a mild (yeah very mild, micro volts) shock- but was uncomfortable as it was on the nerve ending! SO back to ICD- what is the real voltage??/

Next question- she recently had to have it repaired as a wire broke - which someone told her it 'exploded' (I have never seen a wire explode - then end maybe when shorted!). It apparently broke. Then I read IF the...

 

Hi everyone

Just a little update..after my cryoablation I had done on march 20th my junctional tachycardia got quite a bit worse,(the dr also diagnosed me with pacemaker syndrome after the cryo) so after the cryo they went in and did a RF abaltion on april 9th and thought they had it fixed. 2 days later the arrythemia returned with a vengence. I was feeling so bad, my color was grey, my heart was not profusing well, and I really felt like I was not going to be able to hang on much longer if they didn't do something very soon.

On wednesday (4/24) they took me back into surgery, I was under the impression up until surgery that they were still going to do try to find the area causing the arrythemia but when he came over ...

 

I am scheduled for surgery next week to replace my ICD as the battery is getting low. Every so often, it feels like a muscle spasm where my pacemaker is located. (Sorta like a bulging experience). Please understand, I know what the defib feels like as I have experienced it a couple of times while dancing. Is this something related to the low battery or has anyone else experienced this?

 

Hi all,

I just have a question, after 3 ablations for IST they finally got it by doing a epicardial ablation which made me end up with a pacemaker. My "bad" area was located on the outside of the heart. After that surgery I developed accelerated juntional rhythm and PSVT. I recently had a cryoablation last month (which did no good whats so ever and I also ended up with pacemaker syndrome after this surgery) then a heat ablation a couple weeks ago...I felt really good for a couple of days, it was amazing..now its back and stronger than ever. I can't eat, drink, or even talk very much without getting short of breath from the arrythemia.

My question is..is it possible to have an area on the outside of my heart in the l...

 

Dear Members

i just changed my ICD and i would like to know if the old one can be re used by any one or donated to any Charity?

the old ICD: Medtronic
Planted date: 15 June 2008
Changed on : 16 Apr 2013
Battery: it has 2.6 left

 

Hey there


So im off drinking alcohol since i got the icd about 6 months now, do you guys drink with your icds or what ?

 

Hi,

you may have seen my post a week ago where I provided a liks for a survey about experiences with pacemakers and ICDs. I am doing it for my PhD course, and will be so grateful if you can help me with it.
I've already got many responses but most of them are from recipients of pacemakers rather than ICDs. That's why, in order to get a broader and better picture of experiences with technology, I am asking you to participate in my survey.

Here is a link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W36NF9Z

I will post the summarized results on this forum. I hope it will be interesting for you to learn that.

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR RESPONSES ARE COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS

I highly appreciate yo...

 

I received a St. Jude ICD this week and today is vibrated in my chest like a cell phone for about 2 seconds, then a pause, then it vibrated again.

I went to the cardologist and learned that the vibration was a warning signal that something was "out of tolerance/range" in the ICD. The St Jude rep went into settings and adusted the them. Seems that a parameter or two was not set correctly for my situation. The vibration pattern is a signal to call your cardiologist and have the device checked. I think a true hardware problem such as a bad lead would also trigger the vibration warning.

 

Hey, my name is Jacob Johnson. I have known that I have a heart condition since I was 11 years old. I am 15 now. Last year at school I was running warm up laps around our track and had sudden cardiac arrest and collapsed. I had to be airlifted to the hospital and then I was kept on ice for 12 hours. I then got a pace maker/ defibulator put in. I stayed in the hospital for a week and now I'm back home. This year, after school started back I began passing out due to stress. I also was having irregular heartbeats. This made me feel terrible. There is not a night I don't cry a little over the day at school that I had sudden cardiac arrest. I had a girlfriend that was heartbroken. All of my friends were sad. I was just wondering if anyone else ...

 

I too am having problems with my ICD (CD1257-40Q) humming and vibrating.
It started today (4/2/13) at 6:00am, then again 2 times in a row at 11:30pm.
My ICD is new replacement because of lead problems from my old one. I had surgery on 12/26/12 I sure hope I don't have to go through another surgery this soon!

Karol