What is wrong with me?

I had a pacemaker put in 12/1/09, I have since been in the hospital again 1/25/10 for 4 days. I am still having fainting spells, I thought this would have all been done by now. It is so depressing, I dont know what to do anymore. I almost fainted again today, I felt very light headed more than once, my coworkers told I got very pale and looked like I would pass out but I didnot. They have checked me for seizures, which I dont have and have put me on a beta blocker when I was in the hospital in January. Here I am almost 7 weeks later and it is happening again. I am under a lot of stress, could that be a factor. I appreciate anyones thoughts, has anyone had this happen to them also. Thank you Kathy

7 Comments

Beta Blocker

by MSPACER - 2010-03-11 09:03:12

Maybe you are experiencing side effects from the beta blocker. They could make you feel dizzy, and lower your blood pressure.

Has the doctor done a 24 hour holter monitor? That could help identify what's going on. Are you staying well hydrated? Dehydration can also cause faintness.

other causes

by Tracey_E - 2010-03-11 09:03:18

What was the diagnosis why you got the pm? A lot of things can cause fainting aside from cardiac. All a pm will do is cause beats- keep your heart from going too slowly or pausing, both of which can cause fainting. But so could a sudden drop in bp and a lot of other things.

Why the beta blocker? Sometimes we really need it, sometimes they don't know what's wrong so they throw drugs at us hoping to fix the unidentified problem.

Another thought, your settings could need adjusted. Did anything show up on the pm's report at the times you passed out? When I got my first pm, I passed out the first week I had it. Turned out I had a second minor problem that was masked by my main problem. They tweaked my settings and it didn't happen again.

Can you do anything to minimize the stress, or change how you handle it? There are some good books on coping with stress. Stress can cause a whole laundry list of problems.

The pacemaker itself

by Charli - 2010-03-11 11:03:05

Pacemakers are set low at like 55-60bpm, so if your heart is dropping beats during the day you will go lightheaded rather than passing out just while your pacemaker kicks in. They set them low for when you are sleeping. You could ask them to recalobrate it to a higher setting and see if that helps.

Stress and nutrients

by FirstDuely - 2010-03-12 01:03:05

Stress can drain you of essential nutrients so my question is are you eating a balanced diet (yes, that's what my Mom used to ask all the time).
Your drugs may be dumping some of those nutrients so you might want to add supplements to your diet. I need extra Magnesium to correct for my blood pressure meds.
And stress causes our digestive systems to flush out needed minerals and vitamins.
I agree with Tracey re: doctors throw drugs at us without really knowing how we will react. I am trying to get my doc to drop my bp meds as I don't think I need them and they cause me problems every day. Fix the problem rather than treating the symptom.....

thank you

by kmf0318 - 2010-03-12 02:03:13

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I will go back to my Doctor and have everything checked out. I never thought that it could be the Beta Blocker, I will ask my Doctor about that. I have had the monitors on but not lately. Thanks again Kathy

Event Monitor

by ChicagoKim - 2010-03-12 02:03:57

An "event monitor" (that's what my doctor calls them anyway) might be good.

It is a box that you wear that has two leads coming off of it. You wear it as much as you can (ideally only taking it off for showers) for a month.

When it senses any unusual activity, it will record the event plus some time prior to the event. You can also manually push the button to record something yourself. Then you make a "diary entry" to correspond with it so they can start putting two and two together.

Sometimes holter monitors don't catch things in the limited time you are wearing them, so this can be the solution. It's what finally diagnosed my problem.

Pookie has posted a recent picture in the gallery of one.

Good luck.

What was your initial diagnosis?

by COBradyBunch - 2010-03-12 11:03:47

Kathy,

I can relate. I had my pacer put in last June and at least twice since I have gone through periods of 'lightheadedness' and 'fog'. Both times they happened I had effects that lasted a day or two afterwards, just like when I used to have my full out syncope episodes. My doc says that he doesn't know what my trigger is but whatever is causing my episodes the pacemaker will not stop those (my heart would actually stop for periods of time when I got hit by them) but it would prevent my HR from bottoming out and should prevent the syncope episodes as long as it was the bradycardia that was causing them. He did check my pacer after I had one and said that it didn't show that it had had to kick in, so it could have been just an episode that didn't go 'all the way' but the pacer is the safety net to prevent it from getting that far. So I would talk to your doc and see what he says. Could be you are a lot like me. I can almost guess when I am going to take a hit because before it happens I will get some strange feelings overall but when it does hit I can definitely feel it. I usually just have to take a few minutes and then I am okay but like I said, I do feel out of sorts for a day or two afterwards. Nothing that is easy to put a finger on, just kind of spacey and not exactly there. Almost like I am watching my life happening from outside my body. It is weird but I am learning to deal with it.

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