Reaction to pacemaker?

• by Kestrel
• 2010-12-06 06:12:34
• Complications
• 1781 views
• 0 comments

I had my pacemaker implanted nearly 6 weeks ago, and still am experiencing unpleasant symptoms. About 12 hours after surgery, which went quite smoothly, I woke up feeling like someone had poured a whole urn of coffee in my i.v.

My head was pounding, my stomach hurt and was queasy, I had chills and hot flashes, the hair stood up on my head, I felt shaky, tense, and anxious. I had difficulty focusing, and sometimes even speaking, and for a few days, was subject to severe panic attacks. Can't say I'd ever felt like that before. I had already been taking Lorazepam for restless leg syndrome (unusual, but it works) I'd developed after a pancreatitis episode 5 years ago, and the Lorazepam did ease the symptoms.

This continued for about a week. My cardiologist said it wasn't the pacemaker. My primary care physician wasn't sure what it was, but referred me to psychiatry. The psych evaluator told me the situation was definitely not psychogenic, but physiological in origin, that my brain interpreted my new heart rate as a symptom of something wrong (my normal resting pulse had been in the upper 40's, trending down to 30 during sleep; my new rate was 60), and my sympathetic nervous system was overloaded. The Lorazepam worked because it inhibited that nervous system cascade. A psychiatrist agreed, and advised me to ask the cardiologist to set the pacemaker lower.

Eventually I was able to get in, and the pacemaker was set lower, which has eased the symptoms, allowing me to finally work part-time. But the symptoms continue, and I still have difficulty working.

Has anybody ever experienced anything like this? Any suggestions? My primary thinks the pacemaker should be turned down even lower, but I also don't want to trigger the "tachy-brady" episodes which caused the fainting spells which led to the installation of the pacemaker.