Pacemaker Club: Pacemaker or purely coincidence?

Pacemaker or purely coincidence?

by skigrl3
2023-11-15 20:10:49
General Posting
298 views
2 comments

Good Evening, All. I had a strange thing happen today at work, possibly pacemaker related. Or not. I just know its a first for me. I have a PM for 1.5 years due to complete heart block. I am very athletic, have always been. Today at work I took a quick break and walked down 10 flights of stairs to another building to treat myself to a tea latte. On the way back I suddenly felt a little tired, I wouldn't say it was substantial, but definitely there. I thought it might have been just a low blood sugar feeling (hadn't had the tea yet). Got back to my office and I felt fine. Then I felt a whooshing in the area of my PM. Had not felt something this significant with the pm before. Immediately I looked at my fitbit and tried to do an ekg, the tracing was crazy and I got some error messages to keep still. Then my fitbit went into reset mode by itself. After it had reset and synced with my phone, which was a few minutes later I was able to take an ekg which came out as normal sinus rhythm. My question is - Is it possible my PM kicked in and caught an extremely low HR and then zapped my fitbit? My fitbit is on a setting to notify me of abnormal heart rhythms so I thought maybe it was possible, Anyways I lived to tell the tale, so I guess all functioned as it should but just wondering if anyone experienced similar with a fit bit or apple watch. Also if that feeling by by PM was it kicking in?

Thanks!

2 Comments

No the PM won't zap your Fitbit

by PacedNRunning - 2023-11-15 21:02:01

The PM has small electrical current that is localized to the area it is stimulating. It can't zap anything or cause a strong eletrical current in our body. The leads are well insulated. Or perhaps you were just using the term "zap" to describe what you thought may be going on. I have noticed with my apple watch I can get crazy readings and not work if both leads are pacing at the same time. It's frustrating because you want to see possibly what is going on. When the PM kicked in for me intermittently, it felt like a thump or palpation. We all describe it differently though, some say flutters. Hard to know what that was. I would think dizziness or shortness of breath would be a symptom over sudden tiredness

PM or purely coincidece

by skigrl3 - 2023-11-15 22:54:42

Thank you for our response.I was indeed thinking that IF the PM did kick in with that weirdness I felt, that my heart rate was so erratic that the it sent the fitbit into a reset mode as I tried to no avail to obtain sun ekg. While I could see the crazy tracing attempt by the fitbit, yes- it was frustrating not to be able to obtain a tracing interpretation other than error does to stay still...