New 10 yr old with pacemaker

My daughter just got a pacemaker put in this morning, she is 10 years old. She fainted Tuesday at home and everything has happened so fast since then, she had a monitor on for 24 hours and they found out her heart keeps stopping. they wanted to wait until Monday to put in a pacemaker but Wed. night her heart stopped for 5.4 seconds and 4 seconds yesterday so...she got her pacemaker put in this morning. She has 2 leads on it. Lets hope for a speedy recovery....

9 Comments

bless all of you

by jessie - 2008-12-26 07:12:27

first welcome to the group. i hope that she has no complications and heals well and like you say with no complications. i for one had none and feel blessed. bless her little heart. all the best jessie. this is a great group to ask questions

Best of luck to her...

by ADC - 2008-12-26 10:12:28

For what it's worth, for me the weeks long lead up to surgery was by far the hardest part of the ordeal. I'm 35 with two small kids and just got my first PM. I'm four weeks out from surgery and kind of forget about it from time to time. I didn't expect to be at that point already. The soreness was definitely a bother for awhile and remembering not to move too much - but also move enough not to get a stiff shoulder. She'll hopefully be feeling a lot better sooner than you think.

If it is important to you for your girl to wear a medical bracelet (I do, just in case), I highly recommend www.laurenshope.com. They have nice stuff - I think a lady started it because her teenager didn't want to wear an ugly clunky bracelet for diabetes. She might be more inclined to wear it 1) if it's cute and 2) if she can help pick it out. They shipped super fast too.

Best of luck to you both,
AC

Hello

by PattiAnn237 - 2008-12-27 02:12:05

First I wish your daughter all the best, and a quick and healthy recovery. I was 11 when I had my pacemaker put in, so I can very much relate! Is there a condition that they are diagnosing her with? I'm just curious! If you or she has any questions at all feel free to ask!
-Patti

good luck!

by Tracey_E - 2008-12-27 07:12:48

How scary for all of you that it happened so quickly! And how fortunate that she was diagnosed so quickly.

Kids bounce back a lot faster than adults, odds are good her recovery will be a lot faster than your adjustment. Having been a kid who grew up with a heart condition who's now a mom, I can tell you that being sick is a lot harder on the parents than the kids! Kids adjust and accept, they don't think things through and worry like adults do. She's probably going to have more energy than she did before and your biggest problem will be holding her back until she heals.

The best advice I can give you is to resist the urge to treat her with kidd gloves. Being treated differently from the other kids always bothered me more than knowing I had a heart condition.

Living with a pacemaker takes a bit of adjustment but it's really not a big deal once you get used to it. She can't play tackle football now, she'll never get a job arc welding or working in a junkyard, mri's are out of the question and it'll take a little longer to get through the airport. Other than periodic checks, it really doesn't affect our daily lives. There are so many other things that are worse, I've always been grateful to have a problem so easily and perfectly corrected.

What AC said about the bracelet! And americanmedical-id.com has some durable sports bands in cute colors also.

best wishes

by slarnerd - 2008-12-27 10:12:14

I wish your daughter a very fast recovery! That must have been terrifying!

I also wanted to invite you to join the yahoo group for parents of paced kids. There are at least two members whose children were also paced after fainting or heart-pausing episodes. And there are many members with older kids who have found ways to participate in athetics and other activities with few limitations.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/heartblockkids/

Best For the New Year

by ppt - 2008-12-27 12:12:46

Sounds like what happened to me. Best of luck to you ! Hopefully she will bounce back quickly. Have a healthy and Happy New Year and just keep thinking about all the things she can do with her pm. - probably all the lthigs little girls want to do :-)

12 year old son

by rkuba - 2008-12-29 07:12:00

Hi,
I just signed on. I was a little nervous about signing up for this support group. Never done anything like this but saw your notice. I have a twelve you old boy and it was also a world wind. He went to the hospital for what they thought was an asthma attack. I was then told his EKG looked like that of an 80 year old man. Anyway. He had a pacemaker put in October 30.

welcome!

by slarnerd - 2008-12-29 08:12:33

Glad to have you. That must have been terrifying! Do they think it was caused by an infection of some kind? We do have other members on the yahoo group whose children were diagnosed and paced in the fashion that your son was. They can speak more to those circumstances. I was never in any support group until I started the yahoo one ... but it has been such a blessing to be able to ask questions, get support from moms who really completely understand, and more. I look forward to getting to know you better there!

Sterling

Kids with pacers

by uvagershwin - 2009-01-09 08:01:35

Hey! Hope all goes well and if your daughter ever needs anyone who knows EXACTLY what she's going through, I'm here. I'm 14 and have had one litterally my entire life. Good luck and hang in there!!!! :)

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