Feeling pacemaker kick in

Hi Guys

Just wanted to know if anyone else can feel their pacemaker kick in, I feel this in the upper abdomen, not all the time but just unnerves a little.

Cheers.

Julie

3 Comments

The kick

by Blueaustralia - 2008-08-20 07:08:24



I had the same feeling and my tech altered the settings. Now when my pacemaker "kicks" in I just feel a little tick under my left breast at odd times. I don't know what they did but perhaps they turned the voltage down. They did alter my rates to lowest 50bpm highest 130bpm. Every one is different and sometimes it takes a bit of adjusting to find the right settings. Smithy is the guy to explain it all. We would all be lost without him.

Feeling Pacemaker At Work

by SMITTY - 2008-08-20 11:08:07


Jules,

I am of the opinion that no one shoud feel their pacemaker when it is helping their heart. After all the manmade pacemaker is just replacing something the heart's natural pacemaker is not doing for whatever reason. Now I'm speaking only of pacemakers. As I understand it, anyone that has a defibrillator will feel it when it come to the aid of their heart.

There are a number reasons we can feel a pacemaker and fine tuning the settings can eliminate most of them. In my case the lead to the ventricle is in a location that allows the impulse from my pacemaker to "stimulate" a nerve and it feels like an electric shock on the right side of my chest. It took me 5+ years to learn the cause and get help. But I did hear more than a 100 times that your pain is not caused by your pacemaker.

In my case I got an injection in my spine to deaden the affected nerve. It was go for the injection or let them remove and try to relocate the lead. My question about the lead relocation was how do you know where it should be located, since you thought the current location was good. The problem with the injection is that it wore off after about three years and I'm having to get another now.

The reason we do not continuously feel our pacemaker working is that it does not work all time. Again, in my case I was puzzled as to why I would feel these shocks many times one day and very few or none another day. It was only after I started getting reports as to how much my PM was helping the atrium and ventricle did I began to put two and two together. My pacemaker helps the ventricle less than 1/3 as much as it does the atrium so if the PM is doing nothing, of course there in nothing to feel.

Good luck,

Smitty

Smitty to the Rescue

by Jules - 2008-08-21 03:08:19

Thanks for that. I am due to see the cardiologist in September. I am going to mention this. Like yourself my pacemaker works when my heart drops below 50. This happens when I am sitting relaxing or sleeping. Hopefully he can fine tune again and then I won't feel it. It is very hard to understand all the terminology so thanks for making it easy for me. I'll stop worrying and wait until my next appointment.

Jules X

You know you're wired when...

You run like the bionic woman.

Member Quotes

It may be the first time we've felt a normal heart rhythm in a long time, so of course it seems too fast and too strong.