Looking for information for my mom (97)

Hi everyone,

Verna is my Mom. I'm Sally. Mom is 97 and has had a pacemaker for a couple of years. Last week we were at her cardiologist's and after some testing and getting a Medtronic rep involved, he told us that her heart's electrical system had stopped and that the pacemaker was the only thing keeping her alive. 

We were really taken aback and didn't ask the right questions, probably. I figure like any forum, ya'll cant give medical advice, but would someone be willing to venture a guess as to what this all means? 

Thanks in advance.

4 Comments

Mom's heart

by Gotrhythm - 2018-10-06 19:34:08

We have members who have no native heartbeat, sometimes because they have had an ablation, a medical procedure to eliminate erractic electrical signals, sometimes due to other causes.

I can see how learning your mother's heart isn't beating on its own would be hard to wrap your head around, but take a step back. Really nothing has changed.

Not having a heartbeat would be a big problem if she didn't have a pacemaker, but, good news!--she does have one. There's really nothing special you need to do or worry about.

Except for the heart thing, how's Verna doing?

Thanks!

by VernaB - 2018-10-06 19:38:27

Hey Gotrhythm - thanks so much for responding, especially with a comforting bit of encouragement. 

She is doing quite well. She gets tired of hearing people say "especially for your age", but given that she is 97 and still lives alone independently, I'd say she is doing great. She is having extra fatique lately. Doc turned up the pacemaker to 70 bmp instead of 60, so we are hoping for some energy improvement.

Again, thanks for responding. I truly appreciate it.

"No heartbeat"

by AgentX86 - 2018-10-06 20:13:17

Telling your mom that her electrical system "stopped" is an unnecessarily harsh way of saying that she's now "pacemaker dependent ". Which simply means what it says it does. 

I'm one of the people that GotRhythm is talking about.  I had an AV ablation to paper over the symptoms of atrial flutter. I'm still in AFL, so my atria do nothing for me, so they disconnected the atria and ventricles and I'm paced in my ventricles. There is no natural heartbeat from the atria, so I'm dependent on my pacemaker.

All it means is that I have to be a little more careful than most who have pacemakers. I hope I make it to your mom's age. I'm certainty going to try, even if it takes me the next 31 years. ;-)

 

 

 

 

Some questions for the future

by Gotrhythm - 2018-10-08 17:17:47

Now that you're over the shock and emotional reaction, and you know that for today, everything is okay, there are some questions that will relate more to the future than now.

All pacemakers eventually run out of battery life. We talk about "the battery," but reallly it's the entire pacemaker that will need to be replaced.

Don't worry. Pacemakers don't run out of juice and stop all of a sudden. You should have plenty of advance notice during regular pacemaker checks. In addition some pacemakers emit audible tones when the battery is low. Some have different tones that mean different things. Does hers? What are they?

Finally, if you haven't already discussed this: given Verna's age, this is a question for her, you and the rest of the family. When the pacemaker needs to be replaced, a surgical consent will have to be signed. Whether Verna wants a new pacemaker is up to her, of course. But if she's unable to consent for herself, what does she want you to do?

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