Should I question my pacing

I had a loop recorder inserted last year. This reported bpm below 30 at night and some heart stops of more than 3 secs  then I nearly fainted at breakfast having a sudden pulse to my head and down my arms.

Now I have a pacemaker and it's  set to 60 - 130. They said MY  battery will probably last a very long time. I'm  not worried about how long the battery lasts but since my normal heart rate has always been 52 why set to 60.  I'm  feeling good after nearly 2 weeks but surely this means I'm  working entirely off my pacemaker. I'm  still waiting to hear from the DVLA here in the UK but doesn't  this mean I'm  basically mean I'm  an android.

4 Comments

You're on factory default settings

by crustyg - 2020-06-26 10:19:59

My guess is that you haven't yet had your first post-PM implantation in-person review.  You're on factory default, and *yes*, you should ask them to reduce your lower rate limit - 50bpm would be a sensible value to start with.

Your profile is pretty thin, but unless you're in your 80s a maxHR of more than 130bpm might also be sensible.  If you are athletic then you will need your PM to be tuned for your lifestyle and activity level.  It seems reasonable to think that you have chronotropic incompetence - your SA node doesn't drive your HR up when it needs to, in which case you need Rate Response enabled and tuned for you.

HTH.

Over use the battery?

by Gotrhythm - 2020-06-27 16:22:38

You really can't "over work" the battery. Sometimes (rarely) batteries do give out before the estimated life,  but the culprit isn't  likely to be the setting.

Please remeber, when your "normal HR was 52  you were syymptomatic enough to need a pacemaker. But with a HR of 60 you feel better.

When it comes to pacemaekr settings, what right is when you feel good. not what conserves the battery.

60 seems right

by PacedNRunning - 2020-07-03 06:05:01

60 seems right if your symptomatic. It will only kick in if you fall below 60 which is when your sitting, sleeping, resting etc. 60 isn't that far off and seems about right. You probably won't pace much. I was 40's prepacer and now set to 50. 

Thanks, I understand a bit more now

by PandaCub - 2020-07-03 08:30:56

Perhaps it was due to civid19 that not much was explained. I just got a phone call giving me date for the implant. The actual operation was explained before surgery but not much else. I've researched a little and understand how it works now.

The pacemaker sets a timer and if it doesn't  detect a natural heart beat during that time span the pacemaker fires and resets the timer. It it does detect a natural heartbeat, the pacemaker is inhibited and resets the timer. This will ensure 60 beats per minute (or whatever pacemaker is set to).

I was thinking the pacemaker was set to 60 beats, on top of my natural heart beats. Thanks for your help.

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