Good News

• by SMITTY
• 2009-08-04 07:08:13
• General Posting
• 1089 views
• 14 comments

Hello Folks

I know many of you have seen me complain about my pacemaker not living up to its reputation. The low set point was 70 and I would frequently find my heart rate in the mid-forties. With an ejection fraction in the 40s that wasn't giving me enough blood flow to satisfy all my needs. The result was I would get out of breath and have chest pain with very little physical activity.

This all started in Feb. '07 and has gradually gotten worse to the point my activities have been reading, watching TV and sitting here at my computer for much too long. I complained to my doctors and about the only answer I can say that I got was I didn't know how to count my heart rate because my heart was beating faster than the mid-forties. I did get two more stents during that time, to no avail, and I got to learn about some more medications that would make me feel worse.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I asked for a Medtronic Rep. to check out my pacemaker. I got this done last Wed (7-29-09) and I can truthfully say it is now a different world for me. All that was done was to increase the low setting from 70 to 80 and high setting from 110 to 120. Oh yes, the rate response was turned on again, but that is another story. The low set point increase to 80 was my idea (got pat myself on the back, although I didn't know if it would do any good) because that was the initial setting when I got my PM in 2000. The Rep. took the time and made the effort to explain to me about the discrepancies in my heart rate count and that the medical personnel were getting.

A little explanation of how that helped so much. The heart beats I was counting were what I'll call good heart beats. I don't count PAC, PVC or skip beats because they are pumping very little, if any blood. However, my pacemaker counts those things and does not send an impulse, which is just as well because they tell me I don't wan tit trying to override a PAC or PVC. Even on skip beats the hearts natural pacemaker may be sending enough of an impulse for the pacemaker to detect, which means it does nothing.

At a low PM setting of 80 I am still having about the same total number of PAC, PVC & skip beats each minute, but the total number of these is a smaller percentage of my total heart beats. The result is I have more of what I call good heart beats which has made all the difference for me.

I have a ways to go to get back into some kind of decent physical condition because I have been, for all practical purposes, physically inactive for 2 1/2 years. But now I am starting to feel well enough to get back on an exercise program. It is truly amazing to me to be able to walk a few bocks without having chest pain or having to look for a place to sit down.

If there is a lesson to be learned it has to be don't give up. I'll not try to explain how this could have gone on so long when such a simple solution was at hand because I don't know. I'm just thankful for what has happened.

Over the next couple of months I'll be having some tests to see just how good my poor old beat up heart is, but I have faith that things will be pretty good.

Smitty