questions

I feel no diffrent than I did before this was done, my cardiologist is on vacation so I havent talked to him since be fore surgery
can i still have a heart attack , can my vessles be blocked , i work in a mental institution what if i would get kicked in the chest , the pacemaker was put in dec14 2010 I could use soome answers.

6 Comments

It is not unusual to need an adjustment (or two)

by janetinak - 2010-12-28 02:12:00

after a PM is put in & hopefully that will have you feeling better.It is my understanding that the PM paces but does not prevent vessels being blocked or having a heart attack. If you have chest pain or other symptoms that you think may be related to a heart attack or what ever I would go to the ER & get checked out ASAP if it were me.

I wouldn't think that getting kicked anywhere let alone in the chest is not good.Hope that doesn;t ever happen. Might want to discuss with your Cardio & see if you might need some restrictions in who you are dealing with at the institution.

Hope this helps.

Janet

healing

by Tracey_E - 2010-12-28 07:12:00

Not everyone feels better, some feel the same but are safer. Or sometimes it needs tweaked, the settings they send us home with aren't always what we need. Why did you get it?

The pm only makes the heart beat faster, that's it. It's completely unrelated to the vessels if they're blocked or not, and it will not prevent a heart attack. Won't cause one either ;o)

Getting kicked will not hurt the pm, but it if you take a direct hit to it, it will hurt! The risk is to us, not the pm. Risk isn't the right word, it's not dangerous just painful. There are shirts available with a padding over the pm designed to be worn for high impact sports like american football. How likely are you to get kicked?

One More Thing

by agelbert - 2010-12-28 07:12:50

It takes about a month for the leads to "settle down" and become surrounded by tissue inside your heart and veins. Precautions must be taken during this period. Follow the instructions about limiting certain arm movements you were given please.

Information

by agelbert - 2010-12-28 07:12:53

As Smitty said, a lot of us didn't get a too much information about PMs when we had one implanted. One of the ways I have gone about getting information is to ask for the printout that comes out of the monitoring maching when they check my PM every six months (I have two leads in my PM). You learn a lot about the parameters, the episodes and duration, the percentage of time you are paced, what type of pacing and where (atrial or ventricular) and your pulse. Each checkup you can compare the new printout with the old one and see if your episodes are increasing or decreasing or your average pulse is going up or down. All the terminology can be decifered with google.
It takes work but you can do it.
Doctors are very busy. If they will give you the time of day, that is fine. In my case, I don't have telephone access to my doctor. The insurance companies aren't helping with this situation either.
After I was implanted, I felt terrible. I was depressed. But it forced me to take a hard look at my diet and habits. I was overweight (5'10" at 219 lbs) and smoked. I quit smoking and got down ( over a period of two years ) to 185 lbs. I also began to exercise regularly on the treadmill.
Now I feel much better but the PM never really did improve my energy level like many here who had bradycardia. It did, however, provide me with insurance against sudden death from syncope so I am grateful that I had the procedure.

New Pacemaker

by SMITTY - 2010-12-28 12:12:36

Hello Fiddlebritches

Tell us why you got a pacemaker.

I'm going to give you my two-cents worth and I will probably repeat some of the things you have been told by Janet and Tracey. Not because I think they gave any bad info, but because it easier for me to say what I have in mind without looking at what has already been said.

Not everyone gets a pacemaker and it makes them feel better. We get pacemakers to help out when our heart's natural pacemaker is lazy or decides to take a rest too often and we end up with low heart rates. Low heart rates can occur at any time, such as in our sleep, when we are resting or many other times during the day and do it without our having any noticeable symptoms. So not feeling any better or different after getting a pacemaker is not unusual. Your best and probably only reliable source of information on why you got a pacemaker is your doctor.

A pacemaker, generally speaking, is for the purpose of maintaining a steady heart rhythm or speeding up a slow heart beat. Yes, you can still have a heart attack that is caused by blocked arteries. There are other reasons you can have a heart attack, such a malfunction of your heart's natural pacemaker that the pacemaker can prevent. But not knowing why you got a pacemaker, I'll just leave it there. But I'll repeat, you do need to talk to your doctor about your pacemaker as you sound like most of us with one of the little jewels. You are under-infomed about your pacemaker. From what I see people say here, I think greater than 90% of us that get a pacemaker are under informed by our doctor.

Good luck,

Smitty

Pacer and Heart Attack

by ElectricFrank - 2010-12-29 01:12:55

Receiving a pacemaker has little to do with you chance of a heart attack. They often use the diagnosis of Heart Block which conjures up images of blocked arteries. Actually what is blocked is an electrical circuit (nerve bundle) that synchronizes the chambers of the heart. The pacer just wires around the problem and all is well.

frank

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