Most Recent Messages in Complications

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Irregular heart beats

Hi I am having a lot of anxiety, shortness of breath, feeling fatigue. having irregular heart beats so bad that I can't sleep. I don't understand I thought a pacemaker was supposed to help with this problem. this day 24 of my recovery. I am starting to get worried. has anyone out there ever had this problem. maybe my medication needs adjusting. I don't know, very concerned 

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Dual Chamber Pacemaker

I was fitted with a temporary pacemaker in emergency late at night (right jugular) and a St Jude dual chamber pacemaker the following morning (just below the left collar bone). This occurred after five LOC events in 33 hrs (all while seated and leaning forward and to the left and arcing my head downwards) and the sixth LOC event while standing and leaning forward and to the left and arcing my head downwards. This latter event left me on a concrete floor and an ambulance ride to the ho...

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A curiosity - lightheaded in stores?

Not sure there is anything to it, but I was looking at one of the other blogs, and people were reporting feeling lightheaded in some stores, one fellow attributed it to the security systems that may be affecting the pacemakers.

This is exactly what happened to me last Wednesday at Kohls.  After 10 minutes in the store I got light headed and my wife had to drive me home.  When I checked  my BP  it had spiked to about 190 over 90...   way above normal.

...

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Turning Pacemaker

Hi everyone,

I had a PM put in 2 months ago. 

I'm now feeling pinching of the skin around the pacemaker, and a new tension of something - I can't be sure what - in that area.

It feels as if the PM has turned in its pocket and the leads or the tissue are stretched, and it's painful.

It's Saturday night, and I don't know if there's much point going to the doctor's until Tuesday (Monday's a holiday here)

Any suggestions or ideas...

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Broken wire left in heart after lead extraction- why am I breathless?

I have had lead replacement (2 replaced), one lead snapped (redundant failed lead from 25 years ago)and left in the heart, end attached with scar tissue, the other end floating. I am having breathlessness with significant huffing and puffing with exertion- (like before I had my 1st pacemaker over 25 years ago). 6 weeks post surgery- there is some talk that this fluttering is causing extra etopic beats and will take up to 12 months for heart to grow over the 4 cm strand-- anyone else had...

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Arm still swelling

Still waiting on swelling to go down. Been on blood thinners now going on 4 th day after swelling of left arm from blood clot found a week after pm installed. Any advice from anyone?

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Palpitations

Hi I’m new here, I have a couple of questions, I’ve just had my ICD battery changed on Wednesday not the leads just battery and ever since my change I’ve felt many skipped beats and extra beats I went to pacing clinic they said there’s nothing on there to be concerned about, your getting around about 50 extra beats an hour they said. I said was there any chance leads could be affecting this, they said not really. I’m also on amiodrome and betablockers  I&rsq...

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Swelling purplish left forearm 2 months post insertion

Hello from a newbie ..

wonder if anything had an experience similar to mine ..

after a nightmare with the original 3 lead CRT insertion that left me with 2 holes in pericardia / ER visit due to stabbing chest pains/  I had another surgery replacing 2 leads . They accessed my subclavical vein through the previous incision and left with an area that 7 weeks after still looks inflamed with a huge gross scab.  However the main problem is the left forearm that turns purplish...

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Anyone else here feels weird body sensation in high altitude

i have a pacemaker my DR says ,my heart is in general good health am 35 years of age ..here is my thing ..when i go on vacation to the mountains or high places ..i start feeling weird like my body is not ok...especially if i walk fast or do any simple activity while there ..i feel like my heart speeding up but i feel like lacking air but not because am tired i feel like i cant breath cant catch my breath feels horrible..is it normal? how can i get rid of this sensation..

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Pins and needles sensations

Two weeks ago, I started to have sharp stinging pains around the pacemaker. Also, it feels heavy or like something weighed on it, pushing inward. This only happens two or three times a week. The episodes last up to three minutes. The pacemaker was installed May 5, 2017. I’ll have it checked out on November 15. 

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possible AFIB starting!

Well, have not been on this site for a few years, but am back on now, looking for answers. Have a St. Jude PM model 2210 (two lead) implanted May 2011.  Have had a few epsiodes where I had to go back in and have the PM "adjusted" correctly. No real problems until recently.  Went to a now electrophysiologist for a 6 month check up ( I still have my cardiologist), she had the rep from St. Jude hook me up to check the PM.  Come  to find out, I have had episodes...

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V Tach

Hi Eveyone,

i am a 70 year old male with a St Jude biventricular CRT implanted in July of this year. After the initial recovery period and once the SOB subsided, I started making good progress in cardiac rehab. I started rehab back in April after a stent, but due to other heart related issues it’s taken me 6 months to complete a 3 month program. Without going though my whole back story, my diagnosis has evolved from CAD (reason for the stenting) to cardiomyopathy and chronic ...

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SJM PM2210 Recall - Firmware Issue

I heard on the news that my PM was recalled due to firmware issues.  I contacted Abbott Labs (who now owns the St. Jude Medical PMs) and they advised me that the firmware had a "few vulnerabilities" but no instances of hacking.  They advised me to contact my Cardio's office.  I called and they took my information and forwarded it to the Electrophysiology Dept.  I received a call about a week later and was told that their SJM Rep said "do not do the...

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2.5 months after surgery, still have trouble focusing and get cold feet from time to time

Hello all

I had my surgery to get my pacemaker on 8/17/17 and was diagnosed with Bradycardia. For the most part after one month of surgery, I have been fine running and lifting weights as I did before. However, I have had trouble focusing at work as an Accountant, and some simple mistakes have led me to getting fired. Two weeks before I got fired I checked myself into the Emergency room after feeling dizzy/nauseous and was initially told one of my leads was "funny". They...

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Health Update

Dear All

For more than 10 years I have lived with the effects of an major anterior MI and for the past 5 had the help of a Medtronic Protecta - 3 lead biventricular resyncronising defibrillator. Which shows no sign of battery run down.

All of ths was a mere practice for diagnosis of 2 primary cancers at the same time having just got my wife through breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. So I am in treatment (just over 4 weeks now) for AML (Leukaemia) at Christies Hospital, Manches...

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Heart Rate Varying Quite a Bit

Hi All,

  Not sure if this is the right subforum....I've had my pacemaker for about a year now, and a few months ago started wearing a fitness watch. Every so often I check my pulserate, and I've noticed it varies A LOT. In a span of a few minutes it can go from 70-100 and back down, with no change to my physical state, movement, position, etc...

Has anyone else experienced this, and is it unhealthy to have your heart rate go up and down so much like that?

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Left Ventricular Impediment

I would apreciate some information, please. Three months ago I had a new pacemaker implanted due to problems with my left ventricle. I have now four leads: three are working and one has been abandoned. 

Yesterday I received a call from my electrophysiologist office that they had an alarm during the night due to a left ventricular impediment. I have been symtomatic with nausea, racing heart, headache, diziness but I assumed it was my lupus acting up again and I disr...

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PACEMAKER IMPLANT

does a pacemaker implant lead to long term damage of heart muscle?

i ask this as my troponin levels are continuously raised; day after using the gym it was 85! normal being up to 14?

 

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Pacemaker

ive had PM for 16 years, and every time I go to airport security I get humiliated and harassed. I give a letter stating I can't go through any scanner of any type because it turns pm off, and makes me sick as hell. Yet still made to wait 15 minutes or more and when go through I have to go fast past scanners because of pain in chest. Got threatened at LAX

now worried about Gatwick airport on Friday. And sick of being told millions go through with no problem, may be so, but for me it&...

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EMF and pacemaker (ICD)

Hello all: just had an ICD installed 10 days ago.

I thought I was a fit, healthy person and much to my surprise some irregular heart rythms had me in the emergency dept of our local hospital. After undergoing a stress test and ultrasound which showed no issues, they performed an MRI to find some scarring on the lower portion of my heart.

I left the hospital with an ICD. All is going well. 

I am set to return to work tommorrow for 6 weeks of modified duty (yah, not)...

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You know you're wired when...

You participate in the Pacer Olympics.

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My ICD/pacer is not a burden. I still play tennis and golf.