Need your help please!

My pacemaker is on stand-by, it only beats when my heart goes below 40 beats. I've been having problems with feeling the ventrical lead beating a lot in the past couple of days. The reason I know it's the ventrical is because when I go for my pacemaker check, I'm very sensitive to the ventrical lead beating my heart. I made an appointment with my EP yesterday and the tech told me that my heart is beating on it's own about 99.9 percent of the time, but, why am I feeling the ventrical lead pace from time to time. Is it possible for the leads to actually pulse when it's not needed. Could my pacemaker actually be malfunctioning in a way? I'm not dizzle or having any physical problem just feel uneasy about the pacing. I was put on a holter monitor for 24 hours. My EP tells me I'm just having extra beats, but, I really feel it's not an extra beat, it's my pacemaker sending a pulse to my ventrical. Has anyone ever gone through this and could you elaborate on what's going on? Thank you in advance for any input.

James

8 Comments

Ventricle Pacing

by Pookie - 2009-08-15 10:08:09

Hi James.

This is just a guess, but could it be that what you are feeling is when the ventrical lead does its own daily self-test?

Are you feeling this around the same time each day?

Pookie

james

by jessie - 2009-08-15 10:08:12

i am not tecnical for sure but it is excellent that your heart is beating on its own 99.9%of the time. wow. the holter will tell a lot and we do get extra beats. if you feel uneasy tho keep asking and perhaps someone else can help. jessie

Thank you

by Christmmpace - 2009-08-16 03:08:31

You guys are great and I'll be sure the find out what's going on with my little heart. Your suggestions were all great and I'm grateful for your concerns and your input. I'll be taking the holter monitor back first thing in the morning to have it check out. They check it in the office so I should get results with in a day or so. I'm be looking into the rate response setting as well, thanks to all of you for your time and insight. How wonderful it is to have people so helpful. God bless you.


Have a great week and I'll keep you guys posted on my condition.

Blessings to all,
James

Hi James

by Rachael - 2009-08-16 05:08:32

Hi
I am going through the same kind of thing at the minute. Although I use my PM 100% of the time but only use the ventricular lead 1%. You are right, it feels really uncomfortable. I have had a PM for 13 yrs and up until 2yrs ago always had a single chamber pm and have found it extremely difficult to explain to my techs what it si I am feeling. But 2yrs on they have finally found out that what I am feeling is the ventricular lead pacing. I am going back in September and will be turning the ventricular lead off for a month to see how I go.

pacing

by Tracey_E - 2009-08-16 07:08:08

The pm interrogation report shows every time the pm sends a spike, so if the report says you are not pacing then you are feeling something else. Even if the pm malfunctioned (which is VERY rare) and sent spikes when it shouldn't, it would show up on the report.

If you were pacing a lot, it might be possible that the timing needed adjusting on the pm to give your heart more time to beat on its own before the pm kicks in, but it sounds like that is not the case with you. PVC's, premature ventricular contractions, can feel funky, that may be what he's calling extra beats. It's like a little half beat that your heart does between full beats. I can't explain them well, but if you look in FAQ's or google it you can get a good definition. A pm can only speed up a slow heart by adding extra beats, it can't control anything your heart does on its own so having a pm has no effect on pvc's.

Have you ever asked for a copy of your interrogation report? Some of the guys here can decipher it for you if you post the numbers.

Went through similar

by dward - 2009-08-16 11:08:16

I too only need my PM >1% of the time (sleeping BPM of lower than 40)
I also can feel ventricle pacing! It even makes me cough sometimes when I go for my PM check. I see you've had your PM for some time, so I am thinking it shouldn't be the settings but you never know.

1) The self test timing comment by Pookie is a good point. When I moved from West Coast to Eastern time zone, my PM would test at 8:AM (vs. 5:AM) so I was feeling that every day. Had it changed so it's now 5:AM here.

2) Is your rate monitor "on"? Mine was at first and I got the "Extra Beat" feeling. Turns out because I don't need the PM during regular or aggressive activity, the PM was "competing" with my natural heart rate. Once they turned the rate response off, I was fine.

3) PVC'S - I get those... alot!!! I agree this could be what you're feeling. These would show up on a Holter trst. You can control PVCs to a point (Diet, stress, medication). PVCs can be here and there or come in waves (several in a minute). They can happen briefly or go on for a few hours.

SUGGESTION
I would keep a record of when you are feeling these and what possible influences (stress, food, drink) where involved. Then take this info to your PM Tech or Doctor.


Wow

by Christmmpace - 2009-08-19 12:08:45

Hi Rachael,

Please let me know what happens, I'm really interested in what's going on. I took my holter monitor back to the Doctors and I'm waiting to see what the results are, I can't wait! I'll keep everyone informed on what the problem was. God bless all of you for caring.

Thank you for your input and have a wonderful week.

James

P.S. I've been doing better today....so I'll keep praying for us all.

Extra beats!

by Christmmpace - 2009-08-22 04:08:14

The doctor called and told me that my pacer was not kicking in, but that I did have some extra beat. He said they're nothing to worry about and I only had 109 extra beats in 24 hours. He told me it was a low number compared to others who's heart have much higher number of extra beats. He said that he even seen one that had close to 20,000 extra beat. They can't hurt you is what he said, but, I really don't like the feeling of my heart having extra beats. Can anyone tell me if your heart beats extra and what should I do to stop these little suckers. Any input would be nice! Thanks again my friends.

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