Surgery over..hoping for longer time

Hi all,
Got my 15th Medtronic pm last Wednesday. Surgery went well. All 4 leads checked out fine. The last pm only lasted 7 months. They upped the upper chambers from 7.5 to 8 and the two lower chambers stayed at 5. They did change the "impedance", saying they thought this would give me a few more months than the last one. Does anyone know exactly how that works? Overall, pain for the first few days but feeling okay, short of b/p running 211/114 (this is not really abnormal for me though).
Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend!
Susan

7 Comments

Extending life of batteries

by ElectricFrank - 2012-04-10 01:04:27

Wow, 7 months is a short time for the batteries to last. Having 4 leads though with the high voltage settings is a real drain on the battery.

I don't know what they mean when they say they are changing the impedance. The only two impedances I know of are the leads and the battery. Neither of these are changeable other than by replacement.

I just happened to think about it. Do you have an ICD? I'm not very familiar with them.

Best wishes on recovery from the surgery. I hope your 5 years to live is reset again!

frank

compare batteries

by cardiacphysiologist - 2012-04-10 07:04:14

7 months is ridiculus, you need to look at all the companies to compare batteries and the size of the batteries, forget how long they say they will last and compare things like the size of the battery - not device but battery. think of it like batteries for home, if a remote control has one battery it will only have half the life if the remote had 2 (look at things like amp-hours) and i am surprised the hopsital hasnt done this as the risks for procedural problems is high,

Filters?

by Shortcake - 2012-04-10 09:04:22

I forgot to mention, this pacer is supposedly the latest, greatest from Medtronic. :) they kept using the term "filter", as in the filter on the leads allowed the impedance change. Again, I'm no electrician, but this one threw me. I'm familiar with impedance as far as electrical devices and current but not sure how this works. Maybe someone has heard this term?
Thanks again!
Susan

Been there, done that

by Shortcake - 2012-04-10 09:04:27

In the nightmare of all these pacers, we tried another company. I had a St. Jude, it was checked before I left the hospital (still in the coa lab) and the longevity of my battery was 12 weeks. They immediately had the company on the phone. They could not explain it either. It is just as simple as this, with the 4 leads and the voltage wide open, there is not a battery that will last for any long period of time. It was even discussed about putting in 2 pacers at once, problem with this was the issue of getting them "insinc" with each other. Per all the companies it was impossible. Believe me when I say, the docs have racked their brains as well as the pacer companies and it is what it is. A few of the companies told us up front we did not want to try their device because it would be no different. We are all different and so is the way our bodies respond. They have no idea why my heart goes crazy and I immediately go into severe heart failure if the voltage is turned down. They also can't figure out why my blood pressure runs 220/140 and am on 8 different blood pressure meds ( not 8 pills, actually it's more like 22 pills per day), neither can they figure out why a woman 4'11" , 110 lbs can take 40 mg of IV-push morphine and get up and walk out of the hospital. I don't fit the textbook :) I know all this sounds crazy but it is the way it is. I just am thrilled to be here. I understand that people think this is so crazy. You wouldn't believe half of the things that have happened over the last 16 years....went totally blind from Coreg, had a sponge left in me with a pacer, oh well that's too long of a story to recall but I hope you understand that I (actually we) have done our homework but I'm so glad to get others opinions. Thanks for giving me your thoughts.

Confused too

by Shortcake - 2012-04-10 09:04:59

Hi Frank,
I have a Medtronic biventricular but have 4 leads, I have a strange setup but for some reason, unknown to docs and Medtronics, my voltage is a key with me. As I stated this is my 15 th pacer in 16 years. The first few lasted a little over a year (14 months was the longest). Then we began going down each pacer about 5 ago, 11 months, 10 months, 9 months, well you get the picture. Now the last one was 7 months. If they turn down the voltage I immediately am thrown into heart failure and end up hospitalized. Medtronics even did a study to see if voltage was a big factor in results and came back with nothing that made sense. This time the doc and Medtronic tried to explain the impedance change, which made no sense to me. That is why I was asking if anyone here knew what it meant.
Been thru a lot on this ride but glad to still be cruising along! Thanks for your response! Have a great day!

Way way out on the bell curve

by ElectricFrank - 2012-04-10 11:04:03

Medicine is a statistically based art. Most are in the center, some of are out on the tail, and some are so far out we don't understand you.

I haven't heard of a filter on the leads, but things keep changing. The best measurement of the battery load each lead causes is called Output energy with the units being uJ (micro Joules). This the actual energy being supplied to the lead on each pace. It is calculated from Voltage, Current, Impedance, and Pulse Width. In my case the numbers are 1.39uJ Atrial, and 28.11uJ Ventricular. In your case you would have to consider the total of all 4 leads. With these numbers I am getting about 5-6 yrs from a pacer.

You are a prime example of how great our devices are. You wouldn't be here without them.

frank

Frank

by Shortcake - 2012-04-11 10:04:56

Frank,
I spoke with the girl in the pacer lab yesterday and asked her about the impedance thing. She said she had overheard my doc and the rep talking and she didn't understand it either. She is going to ask my doc (she is wonderful by the way) and let me know. She did say it is all about ohm law. Resistance, voltage, well you know...however, she did tell me it has something to do with high resistance leads. Are you familiar with these?They are supposedly fairly new (of course she also stated that new could mean up to ten years in use, just not used frequently). Just wondering if you or anyone was familiar with these.

Thanks for your time! Have an awesome day!
Susan

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