Phone Checker

Today I got the phone transmitter in the mail and I completed the checkup. But when I put the magnet over the pm....it felt strange. Like my heart was beating harder, thumping harder...I asked if it was supposed to "feel funny" and the lady on the phone said no...not really.

Has this happened to anyone else?

2 Comments

Change In PM Feelings

by SMITTY - 2009-11-05 06:11:23

Hi Wenditt,

Yes, this happens to me every time I have a checkup at the pacemaker clinic or do one by phone. When you put the magnet over your PM it shifts to a different mode and the feeling is not unusual. This mode allows information stored in the PM memory to be down loaded. The feeling should go away after a few seconds.

I hope the person you talked to on the phone is not one that is involved in the checkups, because such people should know what is going on and that we do feel the change. I hope you can tell your doctor what you were told over the phone.

One other thing, when you remove the magnet your PM will shift back to normal operation and there will be no more of that weird feeling.

Good luck

Smitty.

Phone Check

by ElectricFrank - 2009-11-06 12:11:08

The phone check routine is much the same as an office check, and yes you can definitely feel it. Mine starts out by recording a short time of normal pacing followed by increasing my HR to a fixed rate of 85. In my case where I am normally only paced in my ventricles it changes to pacing both atrium and ventricles. These two changes definitely feel different. They while pacing at 85 it slowly lowers the pacing voltage until pacing fails then increases it until pacing starts again. All this causes some skipped and funny beats. The using the new settings it increases my HR to 99 to check for reliable pacing at a high HR. This is really noticeable. Then it drops back to my normal pacing and records that for about a minute. I have verified all this with the Medronic Rep ans well as my own measurements.

So the bottom line is the lady on the phone has no idea what she is talking about. The best way to handle it is to realize that it is expected and just relax. It helps to breath gently, but deeply during the test. Also, keep in mind that you can take magnet off your chest at any time during the test and all will return to normal.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions be sure and post them.

frank

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