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I had had fainting spells for a year and noone knew what the cause was. Then they implanted a medtronic cardiac loop recorder that caught my blood pressure droping and heart pausing for 4.5 secs causing a faint. Now nearly x2 weeks later I have a PM/ICD. I am in shock as I have always eaten relatively healthy , with no heart problems in my family.
The wound looks as if it is healing well. I had a sore arm but I think that is getting better too. I am trying to be careful not lifting for x4-6 weeks. I dont know what to think and have had difficulty getting info re phones and kindle and laptop etc? Please give me any info you know I will be most grateful.
Many thanks
S
3 Comments
Welcome!
by LondonAndy - 2018-05-05 20:30:41
To the club that none of us want to be members of, but is nowhere near as bad as many people seem to think! I am the same age as you, but got my pacemake for very different reasons ('surgical complication' when they were doing a replacement aortic valve in my heart).
I agree completely with Gotrhythm. I am 100% paced, so if anything interfered with my pacemaker I would know immediately. But nothing has, including airport security arches, MRI scans or mobile phones etc. the only inconvenience is the annual checkup, which I am certainly not complaining about.
Your biggest risk at the moment is probably infection. Keep the scar clean gently, don't share towels, and change them frequently (eg 2 or 3 days) whilst healing, or better still use disposable paper towels for now. Don't keep touching the scar to see how it is healing. Patience. Infection can be very serious, and take you back into hospital. Avoid sunbathing for about a year, as this makes the scar darker.
You will have a checkup very soon, to see how the device is doing, and for some settings adjustments. Make good use of this checkup - ask questions, take a friend to help you remember answers correctly. Your device records lots of data and keeps it for ages, so that it can be reviewed by technicians. If you have a funny feeling, make a note of the time and date so that they can look at this data and see if anything happened at that time. But just because you have a new toy now doesn't mean everything will be because of it!
Ask about "rate response" - this is a setting where your pacemaker detects your physical activity (usually by vibrations) and increases your heart rate to give you the energy boost you need when exerting. They will most likely turn it on at this checkup if it is not on already, and there are different sensitivities, this might take a visit or two to get right.
Feel free to ask more.
Welcome....
by mbcracken - 2018-05-07 15:44:20
like others have said...to the club no one wanted to be...but here we are.
We too are about the same age and conditions. I too have had syncope episodes that lead to the same Medtronics loop recorder you have. Dec 26th, I had 3 beats in 30 seconds, then no activity for 15 seconds...then the heart just kicked back into gear. I now have a BostonSci PM that is setup to handle bradychardia events. Always keeps me above 50bpm.
I am an endurance athlete and have also taken good care of my body. The way it was explained to me was the heart really has two operations...1. eletrical 2. plumbing. You and I (& others) have just electrical problems.
I am back to riding my MTB & road bike 4-5 days a week and getting ready for a 10 trip to ride Moab. I ride a touch slower then I used to but still really enjoy it. Don't be surprised by some minor pains once you get back into exercising as it takes a while for that pocket to fully heal.
Cheers, Mike
You know you're wired when...
You always have something close to your heart.
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New pacemaker questions
by Gotrhythm - 2018-05-05 17:58:30
When you find out you need a pacemaker, it can be a little shocking at first. It was for me.
First of all, heart rhythm issues can't be prevented with diet and exercise. Nothing that you did or didn't do caused it. Some heart rhythm problems run in families. But in a lot of cases there's no family history at all.. Most of the time it's impossible to say what the cause was.
Today's pacemakers are very tough, practically impossible to break, and well sheilded from eletromagnetic interference. No electrical or electronic device that you are likely to encounter in the home will cause any problem at all. And these days, there's very little to worry about outside the home, either. You can go through airport scanners with no problem. Arc welding is said to be a no-no, but we have members that do it.
Really, once you are healed up, even though you have a pacemaker, you life wil be pretty much as it was before. Except, hopefully, you'll feel better.
Welcome to the club. Ask anything you need to. And avail yourself of the search function. There are lots of posts on every subject you might think of.