Most Recent Messages in Checkups & Settings

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To change or not to change

That is truly my question today. I am off to the doc today for my first visit since receiving my last pacer. We have discussed turning down my voltage for more battery life. This is my 15th pacer in 16 years. I have to have my voltage turned up to the max to achieve a decent EKG without tons of afib, PVC, etc. when it is lower my CHF kicks in with a vengeance. However due to the fact my last pacer only lasted 7 months, I am considering trying it. I will have to go on a very low dosage of Coreg b...

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CARELINK DEVICE

I GOT MY CARELINK MONITOR IT EASY TO USE IT I BE WATCH SETUP DVD HOW TO USE IT

ALL YOU NEED PHONE LINE

I THINK MAGIC JACK WILL WORK THAT IS PHONE LINE

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Finding a good tech

I am moving to Santa Cruz, California and have had trouble with my Medtronic settings. I have not had good techs. My EP will be referring me to someone I think, but how would I go about finding a good tech, who probably comes along with the EP? Can I have a separate tech from the EP's office? I guess I could call around and just ask techs or EPs they feel comfortable working directly with the pacemaker manufacturer? Any suggestions?

Wantok

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1st Checkup

Just got my pacemaker (Boston scientific S606) implanted on March 26,12 for tachybrady-syndrome and chronotrophic incompetence. Its a DDDR, which after doing some research actually makes sense to me now. I was able to return to work two weeks post op, but am nervous about my first outpatient checkup to check the settings in July. I definetly feel a lot better. But sometimes i notice my HR up in the 120-130s and I am not doing anything strenuous. My settings are set at 70/130. Does this mean I ha...

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new bi-vent; stairs are hard

I have a new bi-vent pacemaker and tomorrow will be day 13 after my surgery. Before I had it put in I had no symptoms of my cardiomyopathy even with an EF of 25%. ( I am 47 and very active.) The pacemaker went in to correct my LBBB, but now I cannot do stairs anymore or walk up our steep driveway without stopping at the top to catch my breath. I found some other posts from a long time ago regarding a similar stairs problem but the OP never posted if they found anything out about settings....

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50% atrial pacing for Syncope

My one week checkup for my Biotronik Evia shows that its pacing my top chamber 50% of the time.

That's higher than we expected being as we put it due to persistent vasovagal syncope

Does anyone else with syncope know what percentage you are paced? I wonder what is "normal range" for syncope patients.

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Setting Question

I'm looking for your input. I have a Medronic Adapta rate responsive pacemaker. I'm 44 and very active. My upper rate is set at 160 bpm and my lower rate is set at 70 bpm. I'm thinking of asking my cardiologist to change my settings.

I'm quite restless and have a hard time sleeping. I believe this is because my heart beats so strong and fast while trying to rst. Do you think 60 bpm is too low for a lower limit? I jog, but would like to start pushing myself more. My pacemaker is...

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threshold maybe on the rise

Hello - does any body know what your ventricular pacing threshold is? My daughter, 12 yrs, has a pm, and she is so unfortunate to have had problems before with her threshold rising until the point of no capture which means that she is now on her 3rd pm in three years. The one she has now is fine, however, we went in for the biannual check yesterday, and her threshold had risen from 0,8 in October 11 til 1,1 now. And I am starting to wonder if this thing may happen again to her - that the thresho...

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Pacemaker company -- doctor economics?

I read a message here that Medtronic technicians can come use a treadmill to help fine tune a pacemaker if tweaking it has been difficult, but the doctor has to request this. So I talked to the nurse about this possibility because I have been at 4 different settings of rate response, including turning it off, and can't get it right, having had problems both with acceleration and deceleration. She was defensive and at one time in the conversation said "it is expensive you know". Now, according...

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all ok

Had my 1st check-up today and all seems to be ok. Said that I was pacing 48% of the time. I was ready for the tech to race my heart and then slow things down. Again thank you all for having me ready for this.
Duke

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1st checkup

Will have my first check-up on Tuesday 04/24/2012 and thanks to this site I'll know what questions to ask. Thank all of you.

Duke

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Three Weeks In-Still Not Sure

Hi all,

After three weeks, I have still been having plenty of moments of "did I do the right thing"

I got my Revo Sure Scan on 3/29. The settings were right out of the box, 60 bpm low, 120 high end. DDDR was the selected mode.

My diagnosis was Sick Sinus Syndrome, two holter monitors showed my rate was down to 32 at night and about 47 per day. I felt pretty un energetic, pressure in my head and brain foggy most of the time, even though I was still physically in...

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Thanks Guys

Peg541,Electric Fraank,Ebfox,Sarge, thank u guys for the info. i will be seeing the PM Tech on Friday the 27th and will see just where we are and where we can go, thanks again.

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settings

Hi guys, hope all is well with everyone, was just wondering if anyone can tell me if PM setting of upper 120 and lower 60 is a ok setting , any feed back would be great. Thanks in advance

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Is 75 setting too high?

I have been reading many posts about PM settings & it seems like my setting of 75 is a little higher than most. When I had the PM insert last April 2011, I told my doctor that I thought that 75 would be good for me & that is what he set it on.
I have a good doctor but last year when he suggested the PM,
I was led to believe that he had done many PM surgeries only to find out later that he was really new doing PM's.
My heart racing wakes me up about every 2 hours all night and...

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Hooray 1st check was great!

Thanks to you guys. My 1st check up for my pm was great. You guys taught me to ask the right questions and for that I’m so grateful. I had such a knowledgeable visit with my NP she answered all the questions I got from you.  Let’s see, I’m paced at 33% and high/low rate is at 60/140 which is great for me because I feel wonderful:) humm what else, oh yeah my battery life is 11.5 yrs. and only one minor afib episode and my dx is SSS- sinus node dysfunction, afib, a...

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I'm scared

I go for my post pm 2 wk check tomorrow and I have so many questions and I don't even know what to ask. So far I feeling pretty good...more energy and the most restful sleep in my whole life. But at times after a flight of stairs I get SOB and palpations I can hear my heart beat really loud. Is this normal. What are they going to do tomorrow are they going to interrogate me.? Am I going to meet a pm tech? Will they arbitrarily chage the settings if I complain? Should I keep the factory settings...

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Can check-up cause problems?

Good Morning everyone...I got my PM last year in April. I have had a so-so year but I have been getting better in "baby steps". I went in for a PM check up last Thursday & I have not felt right since then.

The tech lowered my rate to 35 twice & brought it back up to set 75 as my rate (I think). He did not tell me anything about my PM.  The doctor did tell me that he found that I have a murmur  now & they did an echo on me. I do not know the re...

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Thanks, 2 months with you

Got my pm feb 10/2012 my GP has been sick and I have never until the other day met my cardiologist . So left hospital being told I would feel better then new and of course felt far from it. You folks have been my only support and source of knowledge and I greatly thank you for that. Friday April 13 was my first interrogation and they were prepared to tell me everything was. Working well with my pm. Thanks to my readings on here I was brave enough to tell them it wasn't right and they really...

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Had my office checkup this morning

All went well. I made sure before they started that the Upper Tracking Limit would be left at 150 even though I'm 82 yrs. The Medtronic rep looked at my report and agreed that I was handling it well and not pushing myself.

Another interesting thing is that my PVC's, both single and runs dropped a lot this last 3 months.

I've got estimated 4.5 yrs left on the battery, and the leads look as good as when installed in 2004.

I wonder if I will still be able to convin...

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Member Quotes

The pacer systems are really very reliable. The main problem is the incompetent programming of them. If yours is working well for you, get on with life and enjoy it. You probably are more at risk of problems with a valve job than the pacer.