.......4 weeks in.........feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest..........tough to get a deep breath......normal??????

 

I thought I should celebrate my pacemaker's one-year anniversary somehow (got mine in 11/29/2010). Considered getting a heart Christmas ornament or some kind of heart charm, but really, there's only so many of that kind of thing you can get, and since I'm only 26, that would be a lot if I decided to do that every year.

And then I remembered a radio segment I heard about Gabby Giffords (actually about the other people who were killed or injured in the incident). One woman made a comment about gardening, saying that it felt good to be in the sun and be around things that were alive and growing.

So I decided to commemorate my anniversary by getting a cute little plant, and, ever the pragmatist, I wanted something edib...

 

Iv'e been told by my Doctor that I need a pacemaker, I'm a 44 year old Police Officer and should be able to handle this right? WRONG this is something Iv'e never run into until now. Can anyone tell me how to handle this please!

 

Hello all, I signed up here because my father recently had a ICD/Pacemaker implanted, and I'm trying to ease mine and his anxiety by learning as much as we can about the device and what to expect.

But, it's not exactly going well. He had it put in just after Thanksgiving this year after he blacked out shortly on me due to his heart being in A-Fib. He was fine for 2 weeks and right before Christmas, the ICD fired 3 times in a row resulting in me calling 911 again to send him to the ER. Sure enough, he was back in A-Fib again.
The EP's reprogrammed his ICD, cardio-verted him and sent him home.
And now, another 2 weeks has passed and, just last night after visiting with a family friend we came home and he came upstairs,...

 

I feel like a little rant so bare with me. I have had more bad days than good in the last 3 months. We are still trying to get the right combination of med's together so I can have more good days than bad.

Before July I never sat still, worked 60plus hours a week. Raised two kids, ran them to soccer and baseball 4 days a week. Played wife, took care of our two police k9s and pitbull and kept our home running smooth like a well oiled machine. Some say I burned my candle at both ends. I like to think of it as performing well under pressure.

NOW HOWEVER..... my house is a mess, the laundry room looks like our closets threw up in it. Christmas presents exploded into every corner of our living and dining rooms. The bathro...

 

Looks like I am single again. I have a pacemaker implanted 1 year ago, while I was with my partner. When and if I am ready to get out into the social scene..any ideas on how to "spill the beans" on the pacemaker.

For single people..how has the reaction been for you when you mention it? Don’t know why I am so self conscious about this..anyone understand?

 

Hello,
Well less than a week post PM implant. Cardiologist told me women and heart disease is not well researched or understood. I am only 52 and feeling somewhat alien......a little scared and a little franic about this whole ordeal!
Will these wide mood swings eventually subside?

 

.....hey.....two weeks post implant.......is insomnia normal......not that anything I do is normal, but just wanted to check.......

 

Dear me
Comment posted by shirley d on 2012-01-01 14:57.

Almost 6 weeks in and still tired. Am getting really fed up. Had some complications - PM went nuts! ECG looked like a crazy kid with a crayon for 10 beats, then my own heart rate - quite normal, then the crazy crayon-kid again. My cardio was not around and I didn’t like the on-call guy so they turned it off until my cardio got back (about 5 days of quiet self-monitoring).

Lead in auricle shifted slightly, turned back on and voltage increased. That was about 10 days ago. Feeling some referral to my diaphragm and up my neck! How normal is all this??? Still soooo tired all the time. How long do I wait patiently?

 

I would like to share a story about a young man from my home town of Austin Texas. His story has made national news. Young Ben passed away on Christmas Day from a heart disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or HCM. His heart muscle was thicker than normal which made it difficult to pump blood. The disease caused an abnormal heart rhythm. Ben had an ICD

His story is a touching one, deaths of young people always are. His story attracted so much attention mostly because of the utube video he posted shortly before he passed. Here is the link if you care to watch it The video is about 7 minutes long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjFAQ_f1IU&feature=related

To all my pacemaker friends, peace, love...

 

Anyone taking meds to relax after PM? pain killers or antidepressants, if so, which ones? 

I was put on Lexapro and after 2 days went off as it was a nightmare for me. 

It’s 6 months now and I still find it hard time coping ... does weather changes effect it by giving me more pain?

Thank you all in advance.  Have a healthy year.

 

Its now 6 months since PM , I get lots of pain in cold and rainy weather is this common?

In general every once in while I stil get panic attacks too any recomendations out there?

health and happy new year to all

 

first time to write on here, does anyone else have a tight feeling where the pacemaker is and a lump, i thought it was put under a bone, but mine feels like its just under the skin, had mine put in last month, and feel weird, might just be normal, but im not sure what normal is with this thing, any help thanks in advance. really thought i was supposed to be a new man with this thing put in, but just dont feel like itl ps also feel irratable alot

 

Hey guy

It's been a long time since I last posted. Hope all of you out there are doing good and merry Chrismas.
I have a dog at home, a maltipoo. He is really active and sometimes go overboard. My dog sometimes scratches my pacer site and it hurts, partly because my wounds have not fully recovered. Anyway...it hurts. I told him many time NO!!! But he won't listen. Please help. Any advice?

Cheers
Eve

 

Merry Christmas to all of you! Thanks again for being there.

I was released from the hospital on Thanksgiving day after receiving a PM and now here it is Christmas Eve. I ended up with a punctured lung from the PM procedure, but a week later I began to walk again for exercise. I was running 4 miles every day and 6 miles on Saturday before the PM. This morning I walked 0.75 miles and ran 3.25 miles. I fired my first Cardiologist because he couldn’t communicate and refused to accept the fact that I was a long distance runner. He only saw me as a PM patient. Be strong and be agressive when dealing with your doctor and PM technician. They tend to plug you into average PM patient care program.

 

I posted a message the other day. I did okay yesterday and most of today but now I am back to worrying something is wrong.

I don't have any real reason to think anything is wrong. My heart isn't racing, my pulse is normal and I really don't feel different except I swear I feel a little something in my chest once in a while.

I'm almost 34 weeks pregnant and I try to remind myself there are a ton of things going on with my body. Tons of pressure to different areas of my body because of the active little one. Even now I just felt a little something but it was under my right breast and I couldn't help but wonder if it was my heart.

I just want to feel comfortable again like I did before they had to adjust m...

 

Hi to all. I live in Houston, Texas, USA, and four days ago received a Medtronic MRI SureScan PM. This is my first as I was only diagnosed with secondary AV block type 2 about 7 weeks ago after experiencing increasing dizziness. I was diagnosed with heart disease over 25 years ago and about 20 years ago had a single by-pass. Earlier this evening I was relaxing at home when I realized how "different" I feel. I don't feel different in a negative way, it's just that I don't feel like the same person that I was before the implant. Then it occurred to me, I'll bet there's a support group for people with PMs and, voila, here I am. I can accept that I am different now that my heart is impacted by an electrical device planted in my body. I...

 

Had PM put in 6 months ago. Have notice several time per week a pounding in my throat. When I get this feeling I take my pulse and it is always around 39-42. My pacemaker suppose to kick in when pulse drops below 50. Unit was recently checked out by Boston Scientif rep who said it is working fine and is very very accurate and dependable. When I asked how come I get low pulse readings if it suppose to keep my pulse about 50. I really didnt get an answer from him but he seemed to lean that my check was faulty. I had my wife check it and she got a reading of 39. I also put my bp monitor on and it records a pulse at that time of 38. Anybody have similar situation. I also have frequent skipped beat episodes and understand that my pulse count wo...

 

Hi everyone,
I have been diagnosed with vasovagal syncope and have been told I need to have a pm fitted. I'm 45, always kept pretty fit, Marshall arts, football, squash, golf and more recently running. I've never smoked or done drugs. I drink occasionally and have a pretty balanced diet. I guess I'm in denial. I have fainted probably only 7 or 8 times in my life and always the result of an injury or needles etc. I seem to be getting more squeemish as I get older. It's happened twice in twice in the last 2 months. One of those occasions I was listening to the radio in the car whilst driving. They were covering a story on kidney transplants, I started to feel funny and recognised the symptoms of a faint and got pulled over before I fain...

 

Hi, Pacemaker Club! My name is Robbie (but I'm most commonly called 'Rog'), and I'm from Hillsdale, MI. I just recently joined the PM Club. (I've read the forums for a while now, but I officially joined a little bit ago) It's encouraging to see lots of people in the same boat that I'm in. In October, I was diagnosed with AV node failure, and as a result, I have an EP test scheduled for January 11th. The Dr's have all told me that there is a 99% probability that I'll need a pacemaker, so I'm pretty much just counting on leaving the Dr's office with my new friend for life. :P My questions aren't really specific to the surgery, as I think that I know what to expect there. I'm not too worried about the surgery or living with the pacemaker, as...