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Post surgery condition

My husband had a pacemaker/defibrillator put in 3/22/07. He has not been able to get back his energy and says he just doesn't feel good. They said he had developed an infection and needed 4 weeks of cefritaxone injected after the surgery.

Can others who have had the same surgery tell us their condition post surgery. Have you recovered your energy and health since the susrgery.

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OptiVol Fluid Monitoring

Howdy,

I found out during my last visit to my EP that my ICD has a feature, described below, that monitors the build-up of fluids in the thoracic cavity that is apparently caused by overindulging on liquids & high salt intake from food.

My doctor showed me a chart and asked what I was doing around New Year's and the week before in general. I told him I was celebrating the holidays like lots of people do here in the US and he replied that everyone "cheats" on their diets at...

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nervous about tomorrow

Hi all. I'm going tomorrow to get my first bi-ventricular pacemaker. I've had open heart surgery before, so I guess this should be a piece of cake (tell that to my nerves!). I really love this website and have gotten a lot of good information from your posts (thanks for asking the sex question - I was dreading asking my dr about that in front of my parents). :-)

I'm having the device put in under the muscle. For those of you who have done that - how noticeable is it going to be?...

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POOR PACING SERVICES IN UK

The UK is poorly served for pacing services compared to Western Europe. The service is also patchy what we call here a postcode lottery. To catch up on our near western europe partners the UK needs to implant another 28000 pacemakers per year. This is a shocking indictment of our health services and our government. People who need pacemakers are not getting them when they need them and this of course can and does prove fatal. Pacing specialists are not getting the support they need. There also...

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pain when lifting

hi i had my pacemaker 6 months ago and everything is going fine but i still find i cant lift anything heavy with out getting a pain down the middle of my chest is this normal ?

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Questions from pacer-to-be

If there is anyone who got a PM while asymptomatic could they let me know how they got on?

I am meeting my cardiologist next week to finally plan getting a PM. I have complete congenital heart block and I am 34. Thankfully I have no symptoms. Seeing as I am asymptomatic I dont expect the pm to make me feel better, but will it slow me down? and for how long? I can only imagine that its a bizarre sensaton...can you feel it ticking away. (my heart rate is just below 40bpm so I imagi...

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Would Love Gym Workout Advice

Hello all,
I am 22 female and have had a pacemaker since a baby. (It’s now located in my collar bone). I never was much for exercise but just recently joined a gym. I am getting bored with the treadmill (I do a fast walk then run for about a minute then slow down, then speed back up, etc.) I also do the bike and have taken a couple pilates classes.
My question is what are some other good exercises to do at the gym? I feel like I get too tired on the elliptical and don’t do many of th...

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Chat

Kay it's 10.35pm if you are still up I am going the Chat Room again.

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pictures

what a cool picture of you blake. skiing. also blueaustralia and billie great pictures jessie

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Getting off of Toprol XL

Well, tomorrow I am off to see my EP but not for a pacer check. I am going in to see about getting off of my beta-blocker. I've been on Toprol XL 50mg daily for about 4 or 5 years now. My old cardio prescribed it for me when he didn't know what else to do for me but drug me for my condition. (For those of you familiar with my story or even not I'll just say that I was diagnosed with neurocardiogenic syncope and severe bradycardia.) I can honestly say that I never noticed a helpful differenc...

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New Forum?

Suggestion- we need a forum for Depression-something I think a lot of us deal with some time or another. Just an idea!
cottontop

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Defibulator testing

Hi all,
New to the club. I had a PM/Defib installed Aug 2008 and am scheduled to have it tested next week. Anyone with similar experience? What am I in for here??

Thanks,
Mark

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more sick sinus syndrome

hi all:
i received my PM on 12/14/07 for SSS and all appears to be progressing well. i still have much tightness around the incision and mych soreness as well but it is tolerable and fairly common as i have read in this forum. my condition seems to have developed within the last 16 months ( i am 50years old). after doing much reading on this subject and speaking with my cardiologist, it is difficult to determine if the SSS is progressive beyound this point. that is, will it get any worse...

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Electromagnetic Storms

I heard on the news recently about possible electromagnetic storms hitting the earth from solar eruptions on the sun that could knock out cell service and power grids etc. I haven't looked into this at all but I thought I'd throw it out there for discussion for those of you who know anything about this. Could something like that short out pacemakers and ICD's rendering them unusable?

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APPLE I POD INTERFERENCE

For those of you who dont know it was reported by Reuters that a study at the Cardiovascular Institute at Michigan State University of the effects of IPODS on pacemakers concluded the following. In most cases an APPLE IPOD held within 50mm of the pacemaker for 5-10 seconds interfered with its functioning. Interference was detected also at 450mm. In one case a pacemaker stopped fuctioning altogether. No other IPODS were tested. But we must conclude from this study that we should not buy or use an...

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come on lets chat

Anybody want to chat?

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<<<<<<<<<< ANOTHER BIRTHDAY! >>>>>>>>>>

Thomast, January 14, 1932. 76 years young today.

I hope you don't light all the candles on your cake, it would be blinding, and could cause a house fire. Lol.
Just kidding of course. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you have a super day.

~ Dominique ~

There are some famous people who share your Birthday;
Albert Schweitzer, he was honored in many countries for his work as a doctor, scientist, and humanitarian.
Faye Dunaway, Academy Award winning film and st...

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My lead

So got an echo and it states: concentric left ventricular hpertrophy, moderate aortic stenosis, severe tricuspid insufficiency with evidence of a pacemaker wire extending across the tricuspid valve. ( Among other findings as well) Now this is all new compared to my last one a year ago that stated:
mild aortic stenosis, mild tricuspid insuff. with pacer wire noted to the RV apex.
Now my question. Should my lead be laying across my tricuspid valve like that? Seems very odd to me..
...

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Strange feeling

When I sit in our living room that has a huge big screen tv, surround sound, stereo equipment, and computer system, I feel like I have more of my fluttery episodes than in any other room in the house. Could any of these things be interfering with my PM?
Debbi

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Fascinating News

Just an FYI...I didn't know if anyone has read the story about the lab-created heart. Here is a link for the story at CNN if you're interested:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/14/rebuilt.heart/index.html

I'll also paste the news below in case you don't feel like cutting and pasting into your web browser.

ela-girl

---------------------------------------------------------

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Creating a replacement heart for some of th...

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You know you're wired when...

You have a T-shirt that reads “Wired4Sound”.

Member Quotes

But I think it will make me feel a lot better. My stamina to walk is already better, even right after surgery. They had me walk all around the floor before they would release me. I did so without being exhausted and winded the way I had been.