voltage change/tiring normal?

Hi. My 37 year old son had a pacemaker implant 4 weeks ago. His voltage (?) setting was 5. Yesterday at his 2nd and release check-up, the 2 leads showed normal, safe scar tissue and his BP & Pulse & heart rhythms were so good, the technician cut his setting from 5 to 2.5.  That seemed like a big cut at one time.

Just a few hours after, he began feeling somewhat tired like before he had the pm implant (was only getting 30’s in the heart rates). The past 2 weeks he has felt very energetic and normal again. Now w/ the setting change yesterday he is beginning to feel like he is tiring from moderate activity, whereas the past 2 weeks he has walked our 5 acres field 2 & 3 times a day w/o feeling exertion or short-winded.  Has anyone else had a voltage cut-back that much at once and felt like this, or does he need to expect his body to take a few days to adjust to that change? -- also his BP is still good but his pulse has been in the high-90’s up to 109 since this, also w/ moderate activity, nothing strenuous.

Thanks!

2 Comments

Normal change

by ElectricFrank - 2011-04-24 01:04:27

The original 5 volt setting is a common default setting that is programmed at the factory. This is more than usually necessary, but assures that pacing will be reliable while the leads are settling in. At the first office checkup they run a test where the voltage is slowly reduced to where the heart skips a beat, then increase it to where pacing is reliable. They then use this value plus a safety margin to set the final voltage. A margin of 2.5X is common which would indicate his threshold is about 1.0.

It's possible that the upper tracking limit is set too low for an active 37 year old. This is the maximum rate that the pacemaker will pace him at. There is another setting called rate response that needs to be properly set if it is in use. That could account for the higher than normal HR for him. Having his HR up around 90 even when not very active can be fatiguing after a while.

If he continues to feel this way be sure and contact the clinic ask to have things checked.

frank

Thank U

by ggsgrl - 2011-04-24 05:04:57

Thanks Frank for you info & help. Just relayed it to him. Linda

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