Strange/Irregular/extra strong heartbeats with new PM

I'm a newbie here and would appreciate some input....I'm currently 66 years old and have a background of 30+ years of Atrial Tachycardia. It was mild at first and episodes were short in duration and most of the time the Vagal manuevers would stop them. In the past 6 months, the episodes had gotten progressively worse and lasted as long as 2 hours. I'd have heart rates of 180+ BPM long with light-headedness and difficulty breathing while simply sitting in my chair. We tried a number of meds but were limited as to what we could use that were safe with my epilepsy medications. An ablation attempt was unsuccessful as the issue was multi-foci. Nothing stopped the episodes.

My DRs decided to go with a pacemaker with an AV node ablation. At the beginning of this month they put in a dual lead Boston Scientific model. Surgery went fine and my recovery was easy although I continued to have episodes.

Yesterday they performed an AV node ablation. The surgery went smoothly.

My concern is that my heartbeats now don't appear to be regular. I am having some beats that feel VERY hard/strong like someone is thumping on my chest. It feels like when I had tachcardia except the beats aren't racing. I have four sharp thumps in a row, then a pause, then four more. This continues for about 3 minutes. Then I have them in sets of 3 for about 3 minutes and finally in sets of 2 thumping beats, a pause and then repeating. Eventually it goes back to a regular rhythm that I can't feel. Last night the "thumps" were so strong they woke me from a sound sleep multiple times.

It also feels like the beats are sometimes irregular yet sometimes, I don't feel them at all. Sometimes I have several hard thumps and then it goes back into a normal rhythm that I can't feel. Finally, when I do anything even vaguely physical (cooking/letting my dogs in), I am having trouble catching my breath because it seems like my heart is racing.

PLEASE tell me all this is a normal part of the process and just a period of adjustment issue. I am not scared/worried but I am concerned. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

3 Comments

healing

by Tracey_E - 2018-05-30 22:21:02

Your heart had a really big day yesterday! It's going to take some time to heal and for things to settle down. It's not skipping beats, the pacer won't let it. Sometimes there will be strong beats with smaller beats between that we don't feel, but they are there. Finally, odds are your settings are going to need adjusted once you heal so how the pacer works now isn't as good as it's going to get.  It will get better!

Lumpy heart

by AgentX86 - 2018-05-30 22:41:42

I had an AV ablation and implant about three months ago, so I've recenly been through a lot of what you must be experiencing now.  Don't worry about your heart doing odd, to you, things.  It's still healing and getting used to the pacemaker.  Your team will undoubtadly have to do some adjustments down the line but don't worry about things right now.  It may take a while time to get used to your new normal.

Thank you!

by JJD66 - 2018-06-01 10:43:34

It was really helpful and reassuring to hear that what I am experiencing falls in the "normal" range! I am going to go into the Lab to have an interrogation just to be certain that everything is working as it should but at least now I know it's not an urgent, time-sensitive matter.

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I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for pacemakers. I've had mine for 35+ years. I was fainting all of the time and had flat-lined also. I feel very blessed to live in this time of technology.