first postop dr visit

I was really nervous yesterday about going to my first dr visit since my surgery a week ago, so I took a Xanax just to calm down a bit. I got my favorite nurse, which helped, and the cardiologist didn't seem to be in a rush (that helped too). I found out I have an AV node block (she said high grade so assume that is 3rd degree) that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't, but lately my heart rate readings were consistently low in the 30s and 40s. The setting on my PM is 50 to 120 and so far that seems to be working for me. My heart structurally seems to be okay except for some mild regurgitation. I did feel so much better when I left because I guess just thought I didn't need a pacemaker, but now I realize it was a good decision. There were even times in the last 24 hours that I didn't think about my PM (which is a huge step) and gave me hope for the future. My next big step will be to try and walk my dog because before I used to get out of breath and would get an anxiety attack and could hardly make it home but in actuality it was my heart but I didn't know it, and so I want so badly to be able to conquer this FEAR. Am thinking about getting him a choke collar as he pulls too much cuz I don't want to have a lead come loose. Thanks to everyone for all your encouraging words and support.
Suemarie

1 Comments

Walking your dog

by JulieH - 2010-02-10 06:02:42

Hi Suemarie! PLEASE, if you do walk your dog, DON'T use your left arm. Better yet, for a while, have someone else walk your dog and you walk with them.

One thing I've learned - don't be afraid that you have a pacemaker. I'd be a whole lot more afraid if I didn't. Well, in my case, if I didn't have my PM I wouldn't be here. (Over the course of 5 days, my pulse rate dropped from 48 beats per minute to 14 beats per minute just before my procedure.) I have a total electrical blockage but the doctors said my heart muscle is in good condition.

I'm three weeks out (to the day) from having had my PM put in. Not long after surgery, I named my PM 'Sparky.'

I felt so odd having a PM that, when I got home from the hospital I got on the computer and looked up everything I could find about pacemakers. That's how I found this site. Good people. I stopped feeling so 'odd' about having a PM and now feel fortunate that the problem with my heart was taken care of.

Julie

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