I have a Question about rate drop response.

I am into 2 years with my pacer a medtronic duel lead. i have had no problems for the last year. Now all of a sudden I am really feeling the rate drop response that it has set on it. I get a funny hard to describe sort of tight feeling in the abdomen and I know my pacer has kicked me up to 100bpm. This has happened probably 1500 times in the last year and I have felt it maybe 3 times. I have felt it 5 times in the last 2 days and once it woke me up at night. I have also felt flushed in the face during these episodes but I think it might be apprehension. This is causing me some concern because it seems like a step backwards. Just wondering if any other VVS people out there have had the same experience. Bowlrbob

1 Comments

Rate response

by dward - 2007-11-04 11:11:33

Don't think this will help you, but you may find it interesting...
I got my PM in May. I was "feeling" my PM at various times and it felt just like you describe - Tight (actually kind of a numbing feeling too) in my abdomen. I would get a hot flash, then feel flushed (my wife joked about "Manopuase")
Anyhow - my local Tech. sent me to the Hospital where I got my PM specifically so I could see a PM cardiologist and I explained my "issue" with him. He looked at my charts, tests, PM info and said, "You don't need to have the Rate Response on because that's not your problem (mine is missed beats at a low rate while sleeping).
He had the PM Tech turn off the rate response and had me briskly walk the hospital hallways.
My heart responded by increasing BPM, so he confirmed the rate response was not required on my PM. So it was left turned off.
Here's the interesting part - since then, I have not had the feeling in my abdomen at all.

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