Weirded out/Nervous

I have had a pacemaker for 28 years (I am 31 yrs. old) however, this Monday will be my first replacement surgery in which I am not being put to sleep. I would love to hear experiences from those who have experienced this procedure. I am pacemaker dependent, so how do they pace your heart when your device is out of your body? do you feel your heart rate change? i hear they sometimes put you into cardiac arrest to test your device, this true? Anyways, just a device change, no leads, but weirded out by the thought of this procedure.

3 Comments

gotta be quick internet probs

by Hot Heart - 2010-06-10 02:06:49

hi

i was awake, chatted to the nurse who was holding my hand, could feel sensations slightly but no pain
doc told me what he was doing as i went along said i could watch on screen but chose not to do that

was fine afterwards ate big dinner and pud and went on internet with one of the nurses.

hope you get on well

HH

Staying Awake

by ElectricFrank - 2010-06-10 12:06:11

I had both my original implant in 2004 and a replacement in Jan this year, both wide awake with no anti-anxiety meds at my request. For me both surgeries were a piece of cake. In fact it was nice being wide awake when it was over with no need to spend time in a recovery room. After the surgery I went back to my out patient room for another round of antibiotics and then out the door.

The experience in OR involves having a local anesthesia injected around the site which is less painful than at the dentist. They built a tent out of sheets over my head for infection control. This could be a bit unsettling if you are bothered by closed in places. I'm not. Then you just feel some pressure on the site as they open it up and remove the old pacer. I asked them to let me know when they were going to move the leads to the new pacer. I think I skipped maybe 2 beats as he removed the ventricle lead from the old pacer and inserted it into the new one. I could tell it was on the new one because my HR went up a bit. I didn't notice anything as he changed the atrial lead. At this point the Medtronic rep programmed the new pacer to the same settings as the old one. All that remained was to put the new one back in the pocket and stitch it up.

One suggestion is to ask the anesthesiologist to be prepared to give you some meds if things get rough. They act very rapidly. I made that agreement with him in my case, but mainly to handle his anxiety. The funny thing as they were rolling me down the hall to my room I heard the anesthesiologist tell the cardiologist "I never thought he would go all the way through with it". The nice thing about this approach is that you can give it a try and still have a backup plan.

If I can answer anything else drop me note here or as a PM.

best wishes,

frank

Hi

by janetinak - 2010-06-10 12:06:44

Saw your note & you will probably get a lot better answers but I felt I wanted to reply ASAP to help. I had my 2nd PM put in 2002 & I am not sure what they did about keeping me paced ( I am a 100%-er too) but EP wanted me awake & talking as he was trying to pull out my defective lead. It had only beeen in 3 yrs & he did get it out & put a new one in. I suspect he wanted me pain-free & drowsy but able to talk to him to make sure I was OK. And I was. I think that he probably left the old one attached & made a quick change over but I bet someone will be able to answer that better. I was not put in cardiac arrest 'cause he & I yakked the whole short time it took. He is not much of a talker either, just a very good EP.

Hope taht helps,

Janet

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