4 month check up

• by allanrogers
• 2008-02-08 11:02:06
• Coping
• 1801 views
• 1 comments

Hi Allan (41) from edinburgh here just thought I would keep everybody posted about my experiences so far.

I had sinus bycardia with bouts of paraxsoml atrial fib-
Had pacemaker installed (dual Lead st judes symphony 2550)

First week I felt a whole load better but from what i gather that is fairly typical on here whether its a placibo effect who knows my first week the first thing i noticed was that i was beginning to see everything much clearer probably due to the increased blood flow to the brain and eyes.I went for my first check up and it revealed that i was pacing at 28% i was quite happy about that.My scar was sore but this i expected but after about another week I started to notice that I was becoming hyper and finding it hard to sleep also started having afibb attacks very noticible and quite scary and unpleaseant .So i went back to my docor and he put he suggested has I expected betablockers anyway my initial reaction to the first set of beta blockers was nausea and severe diahoria.No good so i was switched to atenol and because my afib attacks most bothere me at night when my heart was starting to relax he suggested i take them in the evening which is what i do.
Anyway the result was succesfull in as much that my afib attacks dropped to below 1% but however my pacing in my upper chamber increased to 70% i was told not to worry about this as it was the kind of pacemaker I have and that it was designed to out run the attacks of afib, and come back in a year(uk system) .Anyway another two montha past and in the last two weeks i have started to feel slighty(not greatly) breathless and a little bit dizzy it is hard to know whether it is beta blockers or pace maker or my heart requiring more beta blockers.I went yesterday and had another session because i was concerned and after having spent many hours on pacemaker club I felt more confidant to ask questions.It was usual your fine scenario although when I asked for details it revealed that I was now pacing at 80% in upper chamber (not a Problem I was told) but my afib attacks had diminished to below 0% with a total of 1 hour in 2.5 months with none lasting more than 60 seconds.My atenlol is obviously doing its job.My battery life is over 160 months but when i asked how can that be if i am pacing at 80% in upper chamber he said to take these readings with a pinch of salt.I also asked them to decrease my base rate from 60 to 50 bpm because I had read that this helps you sleep at night -but when I asked them to programme it so that it only does this from midnight to 7 am they said that this was not possible on this particular kind of pacemaker- so it has been decreased all day long .So yesterday I increased my beta blockers(atenlol from 25 mg to 50 mg talk about feeling like you are drunk or could it be the decreased bpm rate causing this sensation I think it is the beta blocker and as my doctor said try it for a couple of days and see how you feel I think I will go back to 25mg.
Sorry to pour out all this information I just think it maybe helpfull to someone else who is also a little lost some times and trying to find there way.In suppose with all the trials and tribulations we all have to remember that although we maynever be 100% again we are a whole load better than before pacemaker

allan from edinburgh