scared

hi, (not sure i posted this in the right catagory)
i am new to this site, and came upon it by searching the net, my husband just had a pacemaker implanted 1 1/2 weeks ago, and i am scared to death. i dont know any thing about these things, only told that it will help to keep his heart beating.
i am so afraid that i am going to loose him, that this thing in him is not going to work, we are 22 yrs apart in age, have been together for 31 yrs and married for 27. he is my life, and dont know what i would do without him....
i am hoping that by joining this group i can get some insight on these pacemakers..... and maybe some support on how to deal with the fact that he is broken and needs this to live....
i go by jackswife, but you can call me dana.......thanks

5 Comments

Simple Solution

by SMITTY - 2009-01-26 03:01:48


Cabg Patch,

You know you are right, but I have no idea how to do a Readers Digest version. However, I do have a solution that is so simple I'm surprised I didn't think of it sooner.

Adios,

Smitty

Welcome !

by Loopy Lou - 2009-01-26 09:01:11

Hello Dana! and Welcome to our wonderful club!! Here you will find people from all walks of life and all different ages - they keep me sane!!

As Sue - Magster above just said, you must remain positive, I know you are both scared, and feel sick to your stomach with worry but that feeling will eventually pass. Best not to treat your lovely hubby with kid gloves but try to get on with some sort of normality.

As for me, I am 44, didn't even know I was ill and within 2 weeks had Gerry the Pacemaker fitted. (2nd degree heart block). I had two surgeries as my veins were too small on my left side so a week later my pacemaker was put in on my right side. So two scars!! I couldn't sleep, I was scared, couldn't get comfy in bed, cried a lot etc etc then I found my new friends on here!! I have 2 young children (aged 8 and 11) and fab hubby, who are getting me through!

I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful everyone is!! Always post a message whenever you like. No matter how crazy the question may seem to you - it won't be to everyone else!! We probably have already been there and wearing the t.shirt!!! I find I get more answers to more 'personal' issues via here then I would talking to my cardiologist who probably can only see me for a 20 minute apoinmtent then I would probably forget the questions and answers! as I always go blank when I have an appointment. (In fact, I always go with a pen and pad!).

The Chat room is also a great place to go, I pop in from time to time, if it is empty simply post a message and see if anyone is free to chat at a certain time.

Don't feel isolated. We are all here for each other.

So chin up, grin, (even if you don't feel it), go out to the movies this week - do something different each month - something to look forward to!!

Please pop back to chat with us (every day if necessary) and someone will get out the 'pom poms' out and do a Cheering You Up Dance!! Mind you, not me, if you have seen my dancing!!!

Anyway hope you are feeling a bit better now, and once again Welcome!!! and best wishes to your hubby!

Love & Hugs, Loopy Lou xxxxxxxxxxxx

welcome, Dana

by Tracey_E - 2009-01-26 09:01:23

I don't think I could say it any better than Sue!

The worry is perfectly normal and it takes time to get used to having a pm, but try to remember that the danger was BEFORE he got the pm. You didn't mention why he got it but the two main functions of a pm are to speed up a slow heart and regulate an irregular heart rate. His heart now has a state of the art watch dog, it's always keeping an eye on his hr to make sure he doesn't drop to dangerous levels and that his rate goes up when he needs it to. It doesn't take over and his heart is still doing the work, it's just helping out occasionally by giving the signal to beat when his natural pacemaker doesn't do it first. Think of it as a safety net or insurance policy.

Go take a look in the gallery, you'll see that we are a perfectly normal bunch! Please don't be shy if you have questions, we've all been there.

im scared to

by bullseye - 2009-01-26 10:01:27

hi dana well youve come to the right place the help and suport on here is brilliant .im feeling the same as you my hubby had open heart mitral valve replacement ,a few months ago then hato go back in for a pacemaker ,i was so worried i was gona loose him sat by his bed for a week in icu ,glad to report he on the mend ,but that doesnt stop me worring that somthing will go wrong ,i now suffer from anxiaty attacks an on medication for it .i worked my self up so much worrying over it all it all came as such a shock at what he needed done ,but ive been told all the feelings we have are all normal but feel free to contact me if you want .x

New Pacemaker

by SMITTY - 2009-01-26 11:01:31

Hello Dana,

Welcome to the Pacemaker Club.

You have already gotten reassurances about how great life can be with a pacemaker from some of our members and now I'll try to add a little. However, first I will apologize for its length.

I got my pacemaker in 2000 at age 71, and I cannot truthfully say whether I would be here now if I didn't have it. Probably not, but in 8+ years it has become such integral part of my life I never think of it. But let’s look a little bit at how pacemakers work and how it can help your husband's heart. But before going into that let me say that from what I have learned about pacemakers, I have to rate them as one of the most dependable things ever invented. The probability of his pacemaker ever stopping for all practical purposes does not exist. Sure there have been some failures, but the good part is in the event of a failure of a pacemaker, the patient is not likely to die because the heart would just revert to doing what it was doing before the PM was implanted. What I'm trying to convey here is don't worry about that PM.

You don't say why your husband got a pacemaker but I'm going to base my comments on the guess that he has bradycardia - a heart beat of less than 60 beats per minute. There are a number of reasons a slow heart rate can occur. Some are, a) Changes in the heart that are the result of aging. b) Diseases that damage the heart's electrical system. These include coronary artery disease, heart attack, and infections such as endocarditis and myocarditis. c)Conditions that can slow electrical impulses through the heart. Examples include having a low thyroid level (hypothyroidism) or an electrolyte imbalance, such as too much potassium in the blood. d) Some medicines for treating heart problems or high blood pressure, such as beta-blockers, antiarrhythmics, and digoxin. To name just a few. Your doctor will have to tell you why your husband got his PM and what may have caused the problem to exist.

Now a little about how the PM works. The heart has a natural pacemaker that sends an electrical impulse as needed to keep the heart beating. For any one of several reasons that natural pacemaker is not sending an impulse to make the heart beat as needed. Fortunately for us we now have the man-made pacemaker to help out our heart's natural pacemaker. In some cases the pacemaker takes over the full time job of keeping the heart beating, but that is rare. However, I'm sure you will hear from some of our members that are totally dependant on their pacemaker. For the rest of us, our pacemaker is an on demand device. That means the PM will kick in and cause our heart to beat only when it is needed.

The pacemaker can do this because it monitors our heart beat every second. When it determines that our heart's natural pacemaker is not sending the necessary impulse to cause our heart to beat, the man-made PM will send the needed impulse. As you may have been told, the pacemaker has a low and high setting. These settings (mine are low 70 and high 110) tell the PM when it is expected to help our heartbeat. In my case when my heart rate drops below 70 my PM is supposed to kick in and maintain a heart rate of at least 70 for me. If I'm involved in some physical activity that causes my heart rate to increase my PM will continue to monitor my heart rate and helping as needed until it passes 110 and then it stops helping, although it will continue to monitor. That way if for whatever reason my heart rate were to suddenly drop below 70 that man made PM would be there to help.

As I said, my settings are 70 and 110. Our doctors decide, based on their knowledge of our situation, what is our best low and high settings for each of us. While talking about settings, our pacemakers have an untold number of settings that can be adjusted. Again, your doctor will decide which settings are best for a particular person. Let me also add that the first settings a patient gets, are not always the optimum settings and it sometimes takes more than one try to get a pacemaker fine tuned to meet the needs of a person. Also, most of us have regular checkups on our pacemaker. Mine are three months, but some have them more, or less, often than that. Again the Dr. will decide what is best.

One last word and I'll stop. Your husband probably got some after surgery instructions. The healing process can be as little as one week or it can take several weeks. Follow those instructions for best results. Afterward, in my case, the only thing I avoid is a direct lick on my PM. Not because I think it would harm the PM, but because it would hurt. That PM is about as near indestructible as anything a person will ever own. But after a few weeks and all the soreness from the surgery is gone, just think of your husband as the Energizer Bunny. He will keep going and going and going doing whatever he wants to do.

Before stopping let me add one more thing. There two leads from the top of his o pacemaker going to the heart. These are very small wires that are somewhat fragile and can be broken or damaged. These leads are, at first, sort of floating free in the blood vessel they are in, but after a few weeks they will be surrounded by tissue and are then unlikely to be damaged in anyway. His doctor can give the best advice on how to care for and protect the leads during the early days after the implant.

I wish you and your husband the best.

Smitty

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Member Quotes

I am 100% pacemaker dependant and have been all my life. I try not to think about how a little metal box keeps me alive - it would drive me crazy. So I lead a very active life.