Heart block- St Jude- pacemaker July 2003 and still going. Now being checked every 2 months. Due Knee Replacement Surgery in April. Told in 2003 the battery had a 7 year life but its still going. Is this the NHS getting the last drop of blood out of my stone or good economics ?

 

I normally have my PM checked every 6 months, but it has been over a year now and I really need to get the battery level checked, if not just for my peace of mind.

Short story is my wife, son and I are living with the inlaws while I look for work, and have no income to pay for a PM checkup.

Any ideas to help me through this tough transition? Once I secure a job as an RD, the hospital insurance should cover it, but who knows how long it will be until I find a job!!

Thanks in advance to all for taking the time to reply.

 

in March, they are going to replace the batteries in my PM, and my new Doctor,is going to go in and "seat" the PM better, when it was put in in 2005, if l turned on my right side while in bed, it would flop forward, in fact l could manualy "pick" it up, (hint:you should not be able to do that!!!!) so l went to my cardologist then,Dr Lewis, here in Syracuse.and he told me it would attach itself in time, well it never did!!!!!!! so my new cardiologist is going to fix it,with mesh to hold it.

 

I have recently been seeing a pulmonologist and my cardiologist over the last two months because I have been running low on physical energy and can walk very long without having to sit down and rest. I now fall asleep sitting straight up and without warning. I had a lung strength test done and also a cardio catheterization done, and I told I had low blood oxygen transfer which is making me weak. I also have sarcoidosis, and I am scheduled tomorrow morning for a CAT scan because I had dark spots and scar tissue on my lungs. I am also approaching five years on my pacemaker implant. Help.

 

My wife has a Medtronic pacemaker and we're traveling to Mexico and want to check it over the phone from there. Any ideas how to do that? We know we have to call directly with no country code, but how do you do that from Mexico?

 

Happy New Year fellow pacemaker peeps! Hope you all had a great Holiday season. Well last time I posted I had been somewhat concerned that I was pacing so much but mostly when driving my SUV, which so happens to have a keyless ignition system. After conducting an experiment of driving my husbands truck which is just your normal old ignition starting beast, I discovered that I was pacing while driving it as well. As the days went on I realized that I was pacing all the time and it was driving me crazy! So I went back to see the cardiologist who said that my pacemaker is doing what it should be doing and if it wasn't then I would be going into 2nd degree heart block, which is the reason I had the pacemaker installed in the first place. ...

 

Hi, hope someone here can give me an answer....my dad had a pm placed last week secondary to low heart rate with exercise. He has a dual chamber pm with the rate set at 60. He went for his first checkup yesterday and they said it was not working correctly and accused him of not behaving post op and are questioning a dislodged lead. He has had one episode of sob-which was his primary complaint, and he also had an episode of lightheartedness .

They made some adjustments and told him it was now working and to come back in one week for another chest X-ray. He is freaking out, unable to sleep, and when he called the dr who inserted it he is out of office for 2 weeks. He is afraid he is a walking time bomb! Upon insertion the dr did...

 

Thank you Don and Pookie for your pep talk regarding information I need to take back with me from my checkup today. Feel fulfilled at checkup appointment but when I'm back home, I feel "short changed". Things will be different today. I'll be more assertive but with a smile.

It's the beginning of week 6 since implant of Medtronic MRI Sure Scan and I don't feel ready to go back to work. They said it would be 5 to 6 weeks. Being a flight attendant requires a lot of lifting. My own bags weigh a ton. How many pounds is ok to lift with a PM implant? My appointments are with the tech not the doctor....... Thx!! Anna

 

I am a firm believer of writing down whatever questions I have before a Dr's appt..........How often we leave the office thinking that "I wished that I had asked this or that".

GERb

 

Does the Medtronic Syncra CRT do a self test?
Forgot to ask PM tech the other day
Thanks Pat

 

Hi
There is some info on the Optimization setting, posted by Pookie, and how when it was turned off all her unwanted symptoms went away. Can somebody please explain what the Optimization setting does and how it could cause unwanted symptoms?
Cheers Roy

 

Hi, received a PM in August 2011. Today was my first time with the Telephone check up. They couldn't get the magnetic reading. I am not sure if I was placing the magnet in the correct spot. So I have to go in into the office in February. Should I be concerned?

 

Hi Everyone,
First time poster and new member. 72 yr old healthy female and still employed as a full-time flight attendant and on no prescription drugs. Palpitations, elevated BP, very good EKG and ECHO....the Holter Monitor revealed 5 sec pause. Cardiologist and electrophysiologist diagnosed Sick Sinus Syndrome and scheduled PM implant.

Dec 07, 2011 was implant. At check-up Dec 20, 2011, the only info I left with was: 60bpm, no driving, don't elevate left arm higher than shoulder. After reading posts from this website, I feel that I was left out of info that should have been revealed to me.

My next check-up is Jan 13, 2012, to determine what date I should return to work as a flight attendant. I still have swell...

 

So I finally got a second opinion about whether or not to do a repeat ablation. This doctor said the opposite of what my doctor has been telling me. He said the ablation is not a good choice because they just cause more problems typically. He said exercise and get off the Sotalol because long term it's not good. I explained that I do exercise but it brings on more irregular beats and that without the Sotalol I am hardly ever in normal rhythm. I asked wouldn't that make me at risk of heart failure if my rates were out of control? He said yes but Sotalol is not good to be on long term. He said exercise will help the irregular beats. Then he turned to my husband and shrugged and said but some problems just can't be solved. Well I started cry...

 

Hiya... EXCITED SO HAVE TO TELL SOMEONE!!!

I had an appointment with my doctor about 3 weeks ago, when I originally got my PM put in 7 years ago, I was using it 87% of the time. My heart would stop for up to 10 seconds every couple of minutes daily - at age 10 my resting pulse was 20 bpm. When I went to see my doctor, he told me that I am now using my PM about 2% of the time!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOH
PirateFly

 

can you take a cat scan with a pacemaker?


thanks

 

Hello to all, I am fortunately a healthy individual who loves her new bionic husband with his back up battery. I am the researcher of the family as such I am on a mission to discover if anyone who has received a pacemaker has experienced a rise in their blood pressure following the the insertion.
Facts:
Diagnosis: Bradycardia/Vagus Tonus
Operation: Sept.2011
PM Type: Meditronic ADDRL 01 Atr lead/RV lead
Mode: DDDR

My husband is a 67 yr old athlete and continues a healthy exercise regime. Everything is going well but for the erratic and high blood pressure. He has always had a very good BP, so I have to think there must be a correlation with the PM.
Has anyone experienced this after PM inse...

 

Just back from being "tuned" (6 week after PM). What a nice technician. All OK but changed settings. Switched off movement sensor so i dont go into sleep mode. (My heart was going down to 45 bpm with this on) Upped the threshhold to 60 (it was at 50bpm). So I wont go below 60 bpm now. Lowered the voltage to .3 from .5. Lead seems to have shifted again slightly. Will check again in 3 months.
Cant tell what this strange "bubble" sensation is in my throat. Nothing to do with the pacemaker.
Reading between the lines I will be changing Cardiologists. Thanks for support and info given.

 

Monitor work with a digital phone line, like Time Warner Cable? We are about to switch over from a standard land line service to Time Warner. They say that we still use the same wall jacks which they connect to behind the scenes and then runs through their fiber optic lines to be transmitted.
I can still cancel that so thought I'd better see if anyone here has any experience with this.
Thanks for any input.
Harry

 

I am looking to find a good pacer technition who works within Melbourne Australia.My dad needs help he has had this heavy leg feeling like they don't want to walk...This is the way he explaines it to everyone.He has had test after test to find his leg problem, but there is no answer.Cardiologist sends him to doctors and doctors says pacemaker problem is the likely answer.They have all given up ! We would like to find someone who can adjust his settings and keep him in a clinic to get his setting right,he is more than certain it is his settings but they wont listen to him.Please let me know where we can go for a one on one assessment rather than hospital jargon. Really need your help! We will travel far if anyone can do this.