Heart Palpitations

My mother is 87 and just received a Medtronic pacemaker about 3 weeks ago for sick sinus syndrome. She no longer has fainting spells but is experiencing heart palpitations/racing heart beat up to 115 beats per minute which lasts about 15 minutes each episode. This usually occurs upon exertion. We have told her that she can't do much of anything for about 3 more weeks as that is what they told her after surgery. She has gone to emergency but they just end up sending her home. We have called the Pacemaker clinic but they have told her to go to Emergency when this occurs. This seems to occur once about every two days. Is this normal in recovery or should this be cause for concern. Should she just go to see a cardiologist?

2 Comments

Look What Old Dummy Did

by SMITTY - 2011-05-14 03:05:02

I see I reposted your message. Believe it or not I'm not completely crazy. I cut and paste the message I'm trying to answer to my word processor and then leave it when I cut and paste my comments here. For some reason I kept you message in the game. Just to confuse folks I guess.

New Pacemaker Questions

by SMITTY - 2011-05-14 03:05:03

My mother is 87 and just received a Medtronic pacemaker about 3 weeks ago for sick sinus syndrome. She no longer has fainting spells but is experiencing heart palpitations/racing heart beat up to 115 beats per minute which lasts about 15 minutes each episode. This usually occurs upon exertion. We have told her that she can't do much of anything for about 3 more weeks as that is what they told her after surgery. She has gone to emergency but they just end up sending her home. We have called the Pacemaker clinic but they have told her to go to Emergency when this occurs. This seems to occur once about every two days. Is this normal in recovery or should this be cause for concern. Should she just go to see a cardiologist?

I can't say what your mother is experiencing is normal recovery for her or not. But I'm 5 years younger than your mother an I'll express an opinion and you can just call what I have to say as advice from one senior to another.

If you mother feels like doing things that will make her heart rate increase, I say let her do it, so long as it does not involve much arm movement on the side where the pacemaker is located. No activity can be as bad as too much for her. If the implant site is healing okay, then it is arm movement she should keep to a minimum. The potential for a problem lies in disturbing the leads that run from he PM to her heart. They need a few weeks to a couple of months to get settle in. However, she does need to use the arm some to prevent "locked shoulder", just don't over do it.

The 115 BPM heart rate may need looking into. That is pretty fast for some one mine or her age, without a fair amount of activity. Now her PM has one feature that could be involved in the fast heart rate. It is called rate response and its purpose is to increase the heart rate with activity. Some people need the help of this feature (I do) and some don't. The rate response is adjustable for the amount of activity needed to make it speed up the heart and the maximum heart rate it will cause and some other things I don't know about are adjustable.

There are a couple of ways to find out if her rate response is turned on. The best one, of course, is to ask her Dr but in the event you don't want to wait for that, you can try my method. Count her pulse and then pick a spot about three or four inches from her PM, the ribs on the left side (if the PM is on the left side) is a good spot and tap it firmly, not hard, but firmly for about 20 to 30 seconds and take her pulse. If the rate response is turned on it will react to this thumping and increase. The heart rate should return to normal in 5 to 10 minutes.

Of course I think seeing the cardiologist is best. I do know from experience I will not again go to an E.R. with PM questions except in an extreme emergency.

I wish your mother the best,

Smitty

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