Most Recent Messages in General Posting

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Update

Hey guys! It's been years since I've visited or posted on this page. I figured it was time to come back and pay it forward with my experiences thus far. I got my pacemaker almost 11-12yrs ago now at the ripe age of 23yrs old. I have finally triggered for replacement so Ill go from St. Jude Accent to whatever they are now? Boston Scientific? I don't know, but hopefully in a month or two here I'll have another generator that'll last another decade. I'm very lucky in...

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Long Term Care Insurance

Anyone tried to get long term care insurance with an AFib diagnosis and a pacemaker?

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Excellent publication

I came across this very useful reference article when looking how to interpret ECGs.

There is an item on what to avoid with pacemakers that might help anyone with questions.

Here's a link.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2219/#A688

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THANK YOU

Want to give a big shout-out to BLAKE.  I had a VERY (imposible) time trying to post a picture with my name.  Reached out to the club thru "contact" and BLAKE responded back.

He tried to walk me thru the process and being the computer dummy I am -- I just could not do it.  After some more 'back & forth' I just sent him the picture I wanted to have and he put it in for me.

It's a picture of a Boxer dog, wearing a helmet and boxing glove...

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Just joined

Hello all, 

My name is Ed and I had a Medtronic pacemaker implanted 3 weeks ago.  I just turned 62 and had otherwise been healthy.  I had a stent put in during January and on my first day of Cardiac rehab I had fainted and then had a pacemaker put in!  Fun times. 

I am coming up on my first check on the device with cardiologist.  Hope it goes well.  I am still adjusting to my new friend.  I have found a lot of comfort in reading the posts in...

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Newbie from UK

Morning all

I'd like to introduce myself as a new member of this 'exclusive club'.

I live in the UK and am an otherwise fit and healthy 52 year old. Late 2022 I was diagnosed with aortic stenosis caused by a congenital bicuspid valve. I had no symptoms other than being slightly out of breath on physical exertion which I put down to gettting older!

I underwent open heart surgery in January 2023 to replace the aortic valve and to repair a section of the a...

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Pacemaker id card and cardiologist change

I have recently changed cardiologists because of the abysmal care they gave my husband who had episodes of blacking out.

Since my pacemaker id card has the other doctor's name on it, does it have to be sent back to be updated?

Thanks.

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PACEMAKER CHECK

Hi folks,I had my pacemaker check this past friday and they sped up my heart which i wasnt ready for, and it kind of knocked me through a loop. Anyways, today for some reason i feel my heart fluttering a little more then usual. Would this be normal. Hope all is well.

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I am back, apologies for my delayed absence.

It's been a long and interesting year, and unfortunately I locked myself out of my account and was distracted by other life events.  To anyone I missed over the last year my apologies!

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Relief band follow up

With my ep's approval, I ordered a relief band to test out. That's the tens bracelet for motion sickness that I posted about last week.

My heart rate stayed steady with it turned on. It also stayed steady when I put it directly over my device. Since I'll be wearing it for a sailing trip I wanted to make sure it would be ok if I accidentally got it too close in my sleep, and it was fine. I used my oximeter. Rate remained unchanged and zero symptoms with it turned of...

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Pacemaker set at 70

My pacemaker HR is set to not go under 70 and it never has until recently.  The last 5 days it rests at 69 ,68 and today 67.  My fitbit is 4 years old and I wonder if it can not be accurate?  I recently had my device check and no problems.  Has anyone else had this problem, and maybe it is not a problem!  Thanks

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Let's talk about the SyncAV study......

Hello Gemita

I want to follow up with you about the Abbott SyncAV study that I am participating in.

The study is completely voluntary.  And as I mentioned earlier, it is a blind study and you can also choose to have your data “de-identified”.

The study is being conducted in approximately 150 sites worldwide and includes up to 1400 subjects.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate changes in heart size between the first baseline visit and 12 months in p...

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Relief bands

Has anyone used them? They're for seasickness and use tens technology which is usually not ok for us but it's tiny. I reached out to the manufacturer and will also email my ep but thought I'd ask if anyone has experience with them. The older I get, the worse the motion sickness gets and I pretty much live on Bonine when I travel now. 

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Update on VP %

Yesterday I had my annual appt. With Medtronic rep ( turned out there were 2 present ) as well as my 6 month doctor visit. Recently I'd been concerned about a steady increase in ventricular pacing- the highest being 78%. They told me the same thing my doctor has told me in the past- those numbers change a lot and  that I'm doing fine. Battery life of 9-10 years remaining. I've had my PM 3 years in May and thankfully enough, I haven't developed any arrhythmias. I do h...

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Wanna Buy A Pacemaker?!

I had an idea; let's see if there are pacemakers for sale ON eBAY!

So I did. While you can't buy a new one, I've several framed displays of pacemaker collections doctors have acquired.

Weird, funny, but in my eyes cool! Kinda pricey though I'll have to admit.

Do a search on eBay occasionally and see what comes up!

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A Good Pacemaker Book To Read

I can't remember where I heard about this book; it was either NPR or The Economist magazine.

"Machines In Our Hearts" by Kirk Jeffrey, available directly from Johns Hopkins University Press.

It covers the history and development of pacemakers and defibrillators, federal regulation, and the health care industry.

Not as dry as you think. It mentions the competition between brands, all the personalities involved, the technology as it developed, as well as the econ...

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PM , have it 13 years

So I've my pm 13 years.   (This is my 5th) 

I've complete heart block since birth

Battery has only few months left . I'm surprised I'm not due my new pm yet . I'm wondering what symptoms I may feel when battery running low. 

I do notice that when I walk up hill only for a minute or so I'm out of breath straight away and also according to heart rate on garmin I rarely go above 65 even when moving fast!!!

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Pacemaker & Flutter

Hello,

I have had paroxysmal afib for 30 years. It wsa treated at Cleveland 16 years ago and my heart worked great. But then I had back surgery at Barnes Jewish in St. Louis and afib returned. Another ablation converted the afib to left side flutter, but I can't seem to get rid of that. Had a third useless ablation with no benefit.

So now my cardio guy want to ablate my AV node and install a pacemaker. From reading notes here this does not sound like it works all that well sin...

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Svt? Still or different 🤔

If you follow my Questions here , I'm getting concerned  those episodes of svt or extra beat or could it be the coffee I drink ? So today I was driving and felt that episode of a few seconds around 5 seconds I felt like a fluttering but I felt literally for that whole time I felt every beat but felt like it was getting slower n slower I got scared what is it ? 

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ECG - QALY and Kardiacare clinician reviews

I have a Kardia 6 lead monitor. I want to purchase a subscription to QALY which is a service that provides unlimited clinician interpretations of ECG's taken at home. I found this out on the forum here (thank you @Daedalus). 

I noticed that QALY say only lead 1 of the ECG will be reviewed. I wondered if this is good enough? 

Kardiacare offer a similar priced subscription. This allows the Kardia device to use more algorithms to give a bit...

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You know you're wired when...

“Batteries not included” takes on a new meaning.

Member Quotes

Sometimes a device must be tuned a few times before it is right. My cardiologist said it is like fine tuning a car.