6 week Dr. appointment

Hi everyone,
I am headed in for my 6 week checkup tomorrow. In all this time I have had a million questions pop in to my head...none of which I have remembered to write down!

Can anyone send me any ideas? I know some of you had mentioned trying to get a copy of reports?

Any and all ideas are welcome....thanks for the advise.
Wendy

3 Comments

Don't be like me...

by DC Pacer - 2009-10-21 07:10:41

I was not feeling "well" for my first 4 or 5 months, because I let the PM check simply be that, a PM check. I asked a couple questions, got shot down by the PM tech and thought "this is just how it is".

After some good advice on here, I did some of my own research into the challenges I was facing (PVC's) and got some advice and anecdotal support for a change to my settings that I wanted my doctor to approve. Ever since we had that discussion and the changes were enacted, I have felt better and he has listened more diligently to me.

You know how you feel. My advice is if you are uncomfortable with the settings, the placement or simply the way you feel, make sure you get the answers you are entitled to in order to walk out of the office confident that you understand what is going on and confident that you and your doctor are doing things to mitigate the issues. Don't accept "It's okay" as an answer, and have the confidence and grace to request that things are explained to you in more detail.

Hope this helps

DC

Same For me

by ppt - 2009-10-21 10:10:13

I had been told by the Physicians Assistant that I was anxious and needed to "Deal with it!". The Medtronic Tech said there was "No more I can do for you.". Just plain unacceptable to me. 6 months later and a good EP I am now exercising. The morale of the story is "You know your body" - just like DCPacer said. Don't tolerate what I consider to be "dismissals". Keep digging until you feel things are right and be don't be afraid to be "politely assertive". :-)

More

by ppt - 2009-10-21 11:10:03

To start with I would want to know

1. % atrial pacing and % ventricular pacing
2. lower and upper limit settings
3. single or dual chamber
4. delay setting (my factory setting was 220 ms and I am now at 180 ms ). This setting was critical for me - made all the difference in the world as I am a very active person.
5. If dual chamber is Rate Response On or Off (DDD or DDDR). Do not know if this is applicable to single chamber PM. Can someone pipe in?

These are the settings that needed to be "tweaked" for me (as well as the slope of the Rate Response - we went from "off" to medium high). So they may not be applicable to what you may or may not be feeling. Each case is different. But to me these are basic.

Hope others chime in here. My knowledge is soooooo limited compared to folks on here.

Good luck !

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