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Bi-V surgery, recovering at home

At home now, about 27 hours since the surgery. They released me at about 1:00 today after everything was tested and checked out ok. I think the Darvocit pain medicine they gave me was causing a lot of the dizziness. . . but it did kill the pain.
On a scale of 0-10, the pain now is about a 5. I decided to switch to Tylenol to see if that will work instead. I am told I have a high tolerance for pain, so I am hoping to avoid the Darvocit unless it gets really bad.
The scar looks pretty...

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going green

I was reading the mailboxphobia post, had to laugh, thank goodness with all we go through we don't loose our sense of humor. I was also thinking on lines of what Patch wrote maybe we should start a "green" device program, we all know that there would be some money in that somewhere don't ya think? If you think about it most of the device explanted still have a little juice in them, I am sure that we could wire them together some how to make renewable energy with a jolt. See the headlines now....

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Good News

Hello Folks

I know many of you have seen me complain about my pacemaker not living up to its reputation. The low set point was 70 and I would frequently find my heart rate in the mid-forties. With an ejection fraction in the 40s that wasn't giving me enough blood flow to satisfy all my needs. The result was I would get out of breath and have chest pain with very little physical activity.

This all started in Feb. '07 and has gradually gotten worse to the point my activi...

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Ablation, mailboxphobia and walletdectomy

I had an ablation done a couple of weeks ago and have been suffering from mailboxphobia which is a fear of looking in the mail box and finding a large bill.

The bill for the hospital stay is about $192,000. The insurance company explanation of benefits states that they will pay the contract rate of about $86,000. The form also states the hospital is not supposed to bill me for the $105,000 but I will still suffer from mailboxphobia for the next several months until I find out for sur...

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flu and pacers don't mix

hi everyone I just wanted to update you all about my pacemaker change. surgery went well however complications due to the flu wich my whole family and I caught while at the hospital. The flu and pacers dont mix well neither does new boston science pacers and ekg machines they did a ekg in the emergency room on 2 trip to the hospital in two days when they hooked me up to ekg machine it interfered with my pacer and sent my heart rate over 280 beats per minute and it printed out as weird scribbles...

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Had open heart surgery finally

Hi all!

I know I haven't posted for a while but it's been a busy few months. I had open heart surgery Thursday May 28th to repair an Aortic anuerism, and replace my Aortic valve. I also had a second valve replaced with a cadaver valve, another valve repaired and the Maze procedure done in one chamber. Surgery did not go well. What was predicted to be an 8 hour surgery turned into 19 hours and my chest was left open for 4 days afterward. Every time the surgeon tried to stich somet...

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Pin stick feelings and burning sensations over pac

A few days ago I wrote about having feelings of pin stick and burning over my pacemaker and since it continued I call my pacemaker consultant and she, in turn had to call the manufacturer (Medtronic) because she had not had this complaint before. Medtronic told her that there is ONE stitch inside that holds the PM in place and it can get pulled, moved,etc causing these kind of pains. She said even though it it only one stitch it can cause quite a lot of pain. It should stop doing that after s...

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hi friends....

I have been trying to keep up with everyone as much as I can but have not been doing as well as I anticipated. I have been having a lot of trouble breathing lately. Sat I got told that I have strep and need to watch carefully that it is not effecting my heart.
I have never had strep in my life and the first thing I told the Dr a ablation is much easier than this. I was wondering if any of you have had strep and can tell me has it caused problems with your breathing. I am taking all of m...

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Bi-V Surgery 8/3 9:00 am

Won't be long now, surgery is tomorrow morning. Feel good now, the toughest part was waiting the 3+ weeks since we made the decision to go ahead with the procedure. Had a great conversation with the nurse Thursday last week. Coupled with all the information I've received from all of you on this site, I think I've got all the knowledge I need to go into this with a clear head. I am kind of excited about it. . . and have to hope that the Medtronic Concerto does what they think it will do for me. <...

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Tampa Event

So.............
The Pacemaker Club's first ever gathering is next month at the Heartbeat International "Dancing With the Stars" fundraiser in Tampa, Florida.

Who's all going? C'mon folks, let's get our glad rags on and get going.


There's never been a calendar day marked "someday".

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Hi fellow sufferers

Hello again
Thank you so much to all of you who replied so promptly and my apology for my not so prompt reply.
To Dottodot, - i am living in Melbourne/Australia and grew up in Germany, France, Austria and Holland. My family lives all over Europe and the entire mixed bunch has heart conditions of sorts, even though our environment and diets in which we were raised were all very different and none of them has the dilated cardiomyopathy kind. I was 42 when I emigrated to this continent...

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GENERIC DRUGS

Generic drugs as we know or have been told are supposed to be identical to the original. However I personally have noticed that they vary in their effectiveness. I have now discovered that the same prescription is allowed to vary its active ingredients between 80% and 125% in a generic equivalent of the original. I am astonished by this. From 2010 in the UK pharmacists will be expected to change the drug prescribed on the prescription given by doctors to the cheapest generic drug available to s...

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Left or Right side placement ???

Greetings to all. I'm getting a P.M. in two days. I read the pamphlet from the physician and noticed that there is a choice between left or right side. I am right handed and play golf a few days a week. I was wondering if anyone has had trouble with their left arm during the backswing?
Are there overall benefits to the left side placement or is it just a lifestyle choice?

Thanks for your input.

Milo

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New pacemaker on July 21

Well, my son who is 29 just had his first pacemaker implanted on July 21. He has been doing very well since. He has questions & comments so I hope he will join this group soon.
It was implanted for bradycardia and Mobitz II conduction block.
It has been amazing to see how quickly his symptoms disappeared.
I have a question. How often do most people get "paced"? What percentage of the time? Especially those who have a pacemaker for either bradycardia and/or an AV block or Mobitz...

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Young???

I am 27 years old and had a tilt table done 6 years ago......at the time they recommended a pacemaker but it scared me so i didnt follow up......... My symptoms are passing out on the tilt table, very LOW blood pressure, and HIGH heart rate. Ive read it only helps low heart rate???

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PM/ICD removal

You do have the right to demand return of a device removed for any reson as well as the information obtained from any interrogation of teh device. It probably doesn't mean anything but if oyu have the device and the information it will help should any questions ever come up about the function of the device.
papaknight

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finding out for sure in 55 hours

I've been spending the last 5 days freaking out. ended up being sent to the ER at the end of april for shortness of breath, chest pain and just feeling really crappy with super high blood pressure, released being told that I was fine and to follow up with the dr that sent me to the ER, but that's not what was put in my medical record, where they said I needed to follow up with cardio/pulmonary to determine what was going on. I almost didn't follow up but I was still feeling horrid a week later...

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Question?

I just had a pacemaker put in not even two weeks ago. After the procedure I feel like sometimes something pops up in down in my chest. Has anyone else every felt that? Also even before the procedure I would get dizzy and saw dots, but it still continues. Has this happened to any of ya'll?

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2 weeks ago...

Hi everyone, had my DDD PM fitted on 16th july after being called into hospital after my Holter monitor detected a 28 second heartbeat pause during the night!! Isn't technology wonderful! Anyway, I am recovering well, I think, although finding some itching as the scar heals and struggling with clothes (remember to put poorly arm in sleeve first!) Doctor suggests paracetamol - OK. I enjoy getting outside in fresh air, even if just 30 mins walk; I did a 4 mile walk 2 days ago. Some little twinge...

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An Update.... Working for myself!

Well here we are at the beginning of the last week of working for someone else. I have just 4 days to go and I will be totally working for myself. My heart is suffering from some afib. but i think it must be the stress of being scared half to death and so happy I can hardly sleep at the same time! I have 4 new clients already so I am off to a good start and have not actually stopped working for the dr. yet. Like I was saying my heart is giving me fits. Maybe it will calm down in a few weeks......

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You know you're wired when...

You fondly named your implanted buddy.

Member Quotes

I just had this miracle implanted two weeks ago and I’m feeling better.