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5 months to battery replacement

Good evening everyone,  my 1st replacement is coming due in 5 months.  It will have lasted 12 years!  My current Meditronic device is for bradycardia and the ventricle paces 78% and the atria 1%. 

As each month passes, am I going to notice the wearing down of the battery?  I know that when it does happen finally change, the atria will pace my heart at 65 beats. 

Thanks yall,

Natalie

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Pacemaker recipient since birth

Hi, my name is Aletheia.  I just turned 19, but I was given my first pacemaker at 3 days old in 2004.  I also had heart failure shortly after that.  I'm also on several heart meds.  A couple of years ago one of my leads broke and I got a new three lead pacemaker.  That new pacermaker has helped my heart a lot and I've gone from moderate to severe heart failure to mild.  My life is pretty normal except for the fact that I have never been able to be in PE o...

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New to AFIB

Had my pacemaker implanted in 2014 with no problems to date.  Within the past year during interrogation, they have noted a concerning amount of AFIB lasting very short periods.  My last interrogation they found over 1300 incidents of AFIB.  Approx.800 or so were again for very short periods of time,  another 200 were lasting up to 10 minutes, and the one which concerned them the most was one lasting 45 minutes.  Since I'm not up to all the terminology used the bes...

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Daughter needs a pacemaker

Hello, my name is Lucas. My wife and I recently welcomed our daughter who was born prematurely at 35 weeks. She was diagnosed with complete heart block at 21 weeks in utero, and since her birth, her heart rate has not increased as we had hoped. She was given a temporary pacemaker and is currently supported by high flow nasal oxygen for breathing, having progressed from an initial breathing tube and CPAP.

Our medical team is planning for her to receive a permanent pacemaker. They have su...

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quarterly transmission

My quartely transmission was on Dec 19,2023.  Here is the summary. There were 229 atrial high rate episodes detected.  Most were at rest only 6 while active and on Nov 25, which was day i cooked for 5 of us.  The longest lasted 0:00:54:52 in duration.  There was a 1.8% cumulative atrial arrtyhthia burden which was much less the last quarter of 11%.  Review of EGMS shows AT/AF. 1 ventricular high rate episode detected.  Review   of EGM show nsVT13 b...

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Battery Life

I live in a third world country by choice. I am from South Florida. In 2017 I had my St.Jude pacemaker/defibrillator implanted and 90 days later I moved to Philippines.I found a Cardiologist at Makati Medial Ctr,Manilla who read  & printed out my reports every 6 months for 6 years now.  (cost @ $36.00)  My Rythem specialist in Florida told me to track the battery life and when it got to 6 Mo. remaining to plan on returning for a battery devise upgrade. About 2 years&nb...

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I beeped!

This morning I was abruptly awakened by a LOUD beeping noise coming from my ICD! It took me only a moment to realize my smart watch was the culprit. Not the watch itself, the magnetic band! Apparently I got it too close to my device and poor R2D2 wasn't happy. My guy wasn't very happy either, it beeps very loud and scared him half to death. It's not funny... but kinda funny. 

So if you have an ICD and wonder about what it does with magn...

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open heart surgery for a mitral valve when you have a pacemaker

Has any one out there had to have open heart surgery for a leaking mitral valve that has alredy got a pacemakerr? I certainly would like to hear from you.

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Tough question...

I was wondering if there is anyone in this club that has come back from an ejection fraction of 16 or less? Someone with a similar diagnosis of CHF with cardiomyopathy and LBBB. Mine is hereditary and I have no other health problems like diabetes or kidney failure, etc. I'm pretty healthy other than my heart failure. 

If you have gotten stronger and improved your EF, how did that happen? Thanks in advance! 

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Learn Tab

Just noticed that the Learn tab on the bar above has been updated.  Don't know when this happened and I may not be terribly observant, but the FAQ section is now pretty good! Check it out before you answer a post on a subject that comes up a lot and save yourself the effort of giving out all the usual information.

May I contribute a bit of feedback on the 'web links' contained within the 'Learn' Tab? 

The pacemaker manufacturers don't in...

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New to having a PM

Hello. I am new to having a PM as the procedure was on Nov. 21, 2023.  I am a 51 year old female that is pretty active. I was diagnosed with synope and 3rd degree heart block.  I had wrecked my car on June 28th due to an episode and a loop recorder was implanted and then another episode happened on Nov. 18th and on arrival at the ER, my loop recorder was scanned and found the problem as 3rd degree heart block, so as I stated before I had a PM implanted on Nov. 21st.  The p...

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ICD Safety

Just had a Gallant DR ICD implanted from  Abbott Labs. I am concerned about EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) effect on my device from mototcycle riding.

Does anyone have any info on this subject?

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Generator Change Nerves

Hi folks-

I am having my 2nd generator change on Thursday. I am feeling nervous, mostly because I have two little kids. Both when I had the device implanted and when I had my first battery change, I didn't have any dependents, so I wasn't that nervous.

I know it'll be fine because I have a great doctor.

Anyone else feel nervous?

Uma

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Pacemaker placement

Hi, I am 47 years old, My pacemaker was installed at the end of March after a few episodes of Asystole and a 12 second pause but no real cardiac diagnosis prior. My question is perhaps in the wrong section but wasn't sure where was appropriate. I have lost about 60 pounds since my pacemaker was installed and because of this there is literally no "meat" between the pacemaker and my skin.. I feel like I need to constantly protect it because it is right under my skin.. I guess I am...

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How do you know when your Minute Ventilation is set right?

I started out with MV @ 10, then 12, then to 14, now back down to 13.

When set at 14 I felt it was way to sensative and would go to my Upper Rate Setting of 140 to easy and stay there. 

Trying to pay attention to my breathing (aerobic threshold) with breathing thru nose & talk tests. I use Power Meters for all my rides, but I recently changed from a Single Sided Meter to dual: I discovered I had a Power Imbalance. (Left leg was dominant @ approx 58/42%) So that threw...

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Post-op recovery/pain advice

Hey all,

My partner (congenital complete heart block) is 6 months out from a box change (his third) and although the wound has healed he's experiencing a lot of pain/sensitivity in the area, so I wanted to reach out and ask about others' experiences.

How long was the surgical wound bothering you?

The surgery was pretty intense (more than we expected, as the surgeons decided to both remove some historic scar tissue and bury the box deeper than his others had been) but...

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Smart turbo trainer (cycling)

I had my CRT-D implanted last week and already thinking about cycling again. To start again I want to get on my Elite Smart turbo trainer with Zwift. Does anyone know if there are any issues using a smart trainer with the pacemaker? Thanks!

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Any Leadless pacers out there?

Considering the dual Avenir in late spring at Cleveland since they are experienced with it.

Has anyone got one - single or dual? How was surgery?  Did they remove the old leads?

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email notification

this morning Dec 18,2023 i received finally an email saying a comment had been posted to my message.

Someone was either paying attention to our comments or they were on vacation over the weekend.

new to pace

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Pericarditis

I am a 72 yr old nationally ranked athelete who had a PM implanted 3 months ago for total AV block.  There were a series of minor complications from the surgery (punctured lung, repositioned lead, etc) but nothing major.  After the surgery I did not feel right. I had multiple symptoms: flutter, Thumps in chest, lightheadedness, and tightness/heaviness in my chest. They changed some PM settings (DDI to VDDR) and the flutters and Thumps went away. But the tightness/irritation in my ch...

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You know you're wired when...

Your heart beats like a teenager in love.

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