Adjustment

Battery life or your life

by Gotrhythm - 2017-05-06 18:31:43

Battery life matters, but it's not the be-all, end-all of living with a pacemaker.

If you felt well before with the old settings but don't feel well now that they have been changed, tell the pm clinic. 

The techs are going to focus on battery life because they can do something about it to make a difference. But the quality of your life matters too. And only you can say how you feel. In the end, you are the one who says whether a setting change "works" for you. 

Don't be a afraid to speak up and to advocate for yourself for the best possible quality of life.

Adjustments

by TBrous&Chip - 2017-05-07 22:04:47

Do speak up.  You are your best advocate.  Only you know how you felt before and after adjustment.

Also the best advice I read through this forum is that if at all possible only allow a single adjustment per visit so that you can validly assess the change.

Adjustment

by Runner 71 - 2017-05-07 23:06:15

thank you for the comments. I will make appt and ask for clarification re settings. 

number five

by dwelch - 2017-05-10 00:42:55

I just got pacer number five two weeks ago.  As mentioned battery life matters, esp when they are expecting you to have a lifetime of these, many devices...But what are they saving 10 devices instead of 11?  Not their money.  The devices get smaller and have more features every time around.  My experience is the surgeries get easier, 48 hours after i was ready to drive and do most stuff, tight skin but no pain, maybe a short blip here and there if I pushed it...but no big deal, almost feels like before after two weeks.

I think they still have these things, but probably not with cassette tapes, push comes to shove they can wire you up with a recorder (halter?) and record you for a day or so to assess the settings.  My first year it took a while to dial in the settings, granted the pacers were not remotely as fancy as now.  today the pacer itself records lots of information they can use.

You are physically going to have to adjust.  You are mentally going to have to adjust.  And the pacer settings may/will need to adjust to you, all these things will go on until they find a happy medium.  Educate yourself (here is a good place, your doc, the pacer vendor, etc) on your condition and what the pacer is doing, your settings (ask for a printout every time they print one for the doc), understand what you can from those.  Depending on the software and the box they use it may show the before and after settings, ask the doc why was this setting changed, what does it do for me, should I feel it.  If they dont have the time or patience to deal with those questions, find another doc, their feelings are not as important as your life...

Dont be afraid to simply say I felt better on the last settings can I go back.  but allow the new settings a little time it could just be that you are anxious that they changed something, make sure your reaction to the changes is physical and not mental.  they could put the settings back and you may not feel better, might not have been the settings at all.  

This process takes time.  Once settled in then they wont need to fuss with it, number two, number three and so on they can just set the ne pacer to the old pacer settings.  

They can really only see the EKG response to the settings, if it shows double beats or no paced beats that kind of thing, but there is room in there, the sweet spot is big enough to deal with how you feel, esp the lower limit, if you are/were used to a much lower setting, well they wont take you down to that, but they might drop 60 to 50 or might give you a little room on the top if athletic and are banging into that limit (the pacer is recording that).  You have to tell them how you feel, sort out fear/worry from reality and learn to comunicate with your doc in terms you both can agree on as to how you feel about each of these changes, and as mentioned they may only want to do one change at a time.  so it might take a couple of years if your insurance will only let you visit so many times a year...