Time to "fine tune"

I will be going in to se my Cardo tomorrow for a 45 day "fine tune" My St. Jude 2210 dual lead seems to be working fine, but I have a couple of Q's:

1. for those of you who jog, run, or bike: I did a lot of running (5k/10k) B4 the implant and have not done any since last week of July (doctors orders). I want to start again. I am thinking my settings (60-140) should be set to 50-155 to cover the spread. any thoughts?
2. since the implant, I seem to get "light headed" more often when sitting for awhile and then get up to walk around. Is there a setting to check here? I don't know.
3. just how many settings are there for this St. Jude PM? and what questions should I be asking my cardo/St. Jude vendor when I see them.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

1 Comments

Pacemaker Tuning

by SMITTY - 2011-09-14 02:09:00

Hi Scout,

I'll give my thoughts on your questions for what they may be worth.

On changing the settings to better accommodate your running, from what I know the settings you want changed would probably have no effect on your running capability. The low setting on a PM is the one at which the PM keeps your heart rate from going below. The upper setting is the one at which the PM stops actually assisting the heart and becomes a monitor only. When, your heart rate drops below that upper set point the PM become an active participant in keeping your heart rhythm steady.

If it were me and I wanted more assist from my PM during exercise I would ask for the setting on the Rate Response to be raised. If you are not familiar with the RR then there is no better person to ask than the St. Jude tech. But very briefly, the RR is supposed to increase our heart rate as physical acetify increases. Having the RR activated is optional and your's may not even be on.

How many setting are there on a St. Jude, or any PM? The number of the total combinations must be in the 1,000s. Of course usually only about a dozen or so are changed during the life of the PM for any particular person, but the total number of possibilities is in 1,000s. That is the reason a person not fully versed in the operation of a PM can make life miserable for a person.

You might consider asking for a copy of the printout of the checkup report. That will show you what all the setting are on your PM and if any are changed they will be marked with (>).

As for getting lightheaded when you get up from a sitting position, I would guess that may not be associated with you PM or PM settings. I had that long before I ever heard of a PM and mine was called positional hypotension. As I understand it, the legs or lower body does not get a good supply of blood while we are sitting. Then when we get up there is the rush of blood to the lower extremities during which time blood flow to the head is lower and we get lightheaded.

Let us know how the checkup goes.

Good luck,

Smitty

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