If all is well??

Here is probably a very stupid question but I have never been afraid of asking stupid questions.
If you have a pm and you have not had problems for a very long time ( i assume we would know if something wasn't right) why do we have to go for pacer check ups. I can understand needing to get the battery life check but my pacer is only a little over 2 yrs. old.I have not had my pm checked in a year and 4 months. I do have an appt. with a new EP doctor on Thursday to establish a doctor-patient relationship and will get it checked, but was just curious as to why, if we are feeling great?
Thanks,
Mona

4 Comments

I Don't Know, But---

by SMITTY - 2010-08-09 06:08:32


Hello Mona,

No question is a stupid question. Even if the answer is obvious, that doesn't make it stupid. Anyway, I can't answer your question here, but I can tell you some of the things that I think influences the frequency of the checkups we get.

Like your age heart functions changes. This means the settings on your pacemaker today may not be the best or even good for you some months down the road.

There can be changes in your heart function of which you are not aware. The pacemaker records some heart function data which is downloaded during a checkup and can give the doctor valuable information about your heart.

There is always the possibility of the battery running down faster than anticipated, so the checkup can be a safety precaution.

A check up not only tells what is going on with the pacemaker it also gives a report on the pacemaker leads and from what I hear the leads may be the most fragile part of a pacemaker system.

As doctors monitor the heart function of different patients by doing the checkup or seeing the data collected during a checkups, they become more experienced in the interaction between a pacemaker and the heart and this is not the same for all patients.

The frequency of checkups varies from doctor to doctor and how often is enough is a good question. I have heard some people say their doctor wants them to have one every two months and some go for six months or even more. I have one every three months alternating between in-house checkups and telephone checkup. Since my insurance picks up the tab (about $120) and I have more time on my hands than I know what to do with, mainly because I'm 81 years old, I don't object. If I was picking up the tab for these or I was having to take time off from work I probably woud not be so agreeable to a three month schedule.

Last, but no least, the doctor/hospital has quite an investment in personnel and equipment to do pacemaker checkups and somebody has to pay for that.

So take your choice from my comments or from those of what others have to say about this.

Good luck,

Smitty

Be on the safe side

by biker72 - 2010-08-09 07:08:42

I get checked every 6 months. I think it's just good practice to have your PM checked on a regular basis.

Future problems might be found and corrected before they happen.

For the first few months after my implant I was getting a PM check every other week. I was still having episodes of A-Fib that were really bothering me. We finally got that corrected. I'm still not 100% happy...but almost.

Feedback

by jessame - 2010-08-09 08:08:46

Thanks for the feedback. As I said I haven't had a checkup for a year &4 months. I actually should have had one phone check, one clinic check and should have gone to see the EP doc this past March. During A year ago this july I had called their office to speak with the nurse and on both occasions she never returned my calls and I ended up going to the ER and being admitted for 3 days to have a cardiac work up because I was having pain in my chest, left arm, my jaw and the left side of my neck had a feeling of fullness.and low BP.. Luckily everything turned out to be fine.And the pm was working fine. Just changes in meds. But the nurse could have saved me a few $1000 buck had she just returned my call. All of the tests that were done in the hospital could have been done at their office. I have really decent insurance but the out of pocket was still high. So this is why I am changing doctors. Maybe I will get better response time with this new doctor. I do see the need for the checkups after reading these posts. So thanks for filling me in on the different things that could go wrong.
Have a great week!
Mona

Mona

by LS - 2010-08-10 09:08:38

Just the fact that you're on medicine is reason enough to be checked.
Liz

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