New to the club; not a pacer, yet.
Greetings,
Have been lurking on the site and reading the forums for a couple days.
I don't have my ICD yet but will likely be getting one in a month.
A bit of backstory - I'm 42, was pretty active, then went to the ER last month with shortness of breath.
Was admitted to the hospital where I was diagnosed with endocarditis and chronic heart failure.
Ejection fraction was at 25%.
My cardiologist has put me on several medications after keeping me in hospital for 3 days.
Have returned to work and feel, mostly back to normal.
Have several questions about getting my ICD though; so much so that I'm not even sure where to begin. I suppose a good one to start with would be: Is this the best option? Are there other options? Did receiving your PM or ICD make you feel better? What about sports and working out and even sex? Driving?
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but all I keep thinking is that I'm getting this thing in my chest in less than a month and it's all I can do not to panic at the thought of it. :p
Thanks in advance.
2 Comments
life after
by Tracey_E - 2018-04-24 15:29:48
Panic is normal! It's a lot to wrap your head around, esp when it comes out of the blue. Learn what you can about both your condition and the device. That got me past the panic. I can accept what I can understand. Don't be shy about asking your doctor a lot of questions. I found that once he understood that I wanted to know, he was a lot more forthcoming and included me in decisions. Write them down, don't know about you but I get there and get amnesia, so I always have a written list.
I found the reality to be a lot less scary than I'd built it up to be in my head. I have different issues than for you, but for me, I healed and got on my with life and now I barely give it a thought. It has little impact on my daily life opther than enabling me to be active. How much you can do after is up to your doctor and how you feel, but simply having the device doesn't automatically mean many restrictions at all. Many get back to healthy, active lives.
Pacers are to get the heart rate up which can improve quality of life. You may or may not need pacing day to day but all ICD's are also pacers because pacing can be needed right after a shock. Are they giving you a CRT? That's a pacer that has an extra lead so that it paces both the ventricles and forces them to stay in sync, which can increase EF. They can also come with a defib (CRT-D) so you'd get all the toys.
Is this the best option? Unfortunately it's the only option, so yeah it's the right choice. Meds will take the stress off the heart and help with heart failure but only an icd can get you out of a dangerous rhythm, which hopefully you will never need but if you do it's a good guess that it's saving your life.
As long as you aren't passing out, you should be able to drive. CDL can be a problem but not a regular license. If you feel up to it, you should be able to do sports once you heal. If you are into contact sports, talk to your doctor about placement so it can be protected. Sex, when done properly it's a sport so see previous answer ;oP
You know you're wired when...
You have a little piece of high-tech in your chest.
Member Quotes
We are very lucky to have these devices.
It’s not the end
by Vmurph - 2018-04-24 14:33:29
My bionic buddy joined the team when I was 26. At the time I worked out 5-6 days a week, 15% body fat, rode motorcycles, worked on cars for a living and thought I had the world by the balls. Needless to say it was kind of a shock when I went in for emergency surgery not long after I started feeling like shit.
Now, I can no longer weld and do every single little thing I once did because my body is not as healthy as I once thought I was... however I was able to get back do some of the things I enjoyed. Work out. Have sex. Ride my motorcycle. But it took time to let my body heal. With your EF where it is you may take a little while to get sorted but there’s a good chance they’ll probably find you a new normal that resembled your old one. Good luck!!