PM check

Well the long awaited day has arrived and I know less now than I id then. A ventrical lead fracture was noted in my Dec. 2011 interrogation.
Noted fracture was in bipolar configuration. Todays reading on ventrical lead were: 13.32 uj,measured current of 3.20 mA, measured impedance of 1,297 (1341 ohms in Dec. "11)
NOT PM dependant!
Atrium at 67% and ventrical at 1%.
Doctors NOT excited about fracture and says I have an estimated 22 months on generator.
Should I be concerned about this? Numbers seem a bit high to ME!!!
Thanks,
Cecil
manaman

3 Comments

numbers

by Tracey_E - 2012-06-21 08:06:37

I'm no expert on numbers, but I have had a fractured lead and it killed my battery life. It still worked fine for years after it first fractured, but it had to be turned up high the battery drained quickly. I was dependent on the bad lead so turning it up wasn't optional. Since you don't use the lower lead much, did they discuss the possibility of turning it off?

I'm sorta in the same predicament

by Pookie - 2012-06-22 01:06:23

My EP doesn't know if my ventricle lead is fractured or not, hence I have been having my pacemaker checked every 3 months since November of last year. I also use my ventricle lead less than 1% so I don't know what my EP wants to do...yet. My thoughts are: so what if the ventricle lead is depleting my battery a bit faster than it should; I'll deal with that when it gets closer to the time of a battery change - which, for me, is a bit shy of 3 yrs according to my last interrogation. My next interrogation is on July 5th.

I asked my EP about turning off the ventricle lead, but because I have such a bad history with my pacemaker settings (it took them almost 6 yrs to get them right) AND I am very sensitive with that ventricle lead (they had to turn off the self-test it does every day) and plus I have what is called Left Ventricle Noncompaction,,,for me turning off the ventricle lead wasn't really an option, but certainly worth a discussion if you want with your doc the next time you see him/her.

I'm only guessing, but with 22 months remaining, sooner rather than later I am assuming they will want you to come for more frequent interrogations and I will assume again that when the battery needs to be changed, they will discuss whether they will take out the fractured lead at that time or just run a new one along side the fractured one.

Again, I'm no doctor either, but this is just my best guess.

Good luck & keep us posted.

Pookie

PM check

by manaman - 2012-06-22 10:06:27

Thanks for the reply by Tracey and Pookie!
After 7 months of anxiety and dealing with the unknown I have decide to:
Since my next interrogation is not until Dec 6,2012 I have made up my mind not to let this get into my head! If I'm only pacing the ventrical at 1% I don't think this is a big deal (inf act I sort of wish dr. had not even brought it up. This interrogtion says from 9 to 33 months life (that is uit a swaing to me). Anyway, it is what it is and as long as I can do pretty much what I want to do I won't let it get to me. In fact yesterday I was told that my OWN H/R was at 80 (resting). That is a long way from 21 BPM nearly 20 years ago (now I'm thinking "do I really need this thing anyway) first Pm was changed in 6 years (to the day) this one is already at 8 years and could go over 10 years!
Anyway, thanks for the replies girls! Stay in touch!
Thanks,
Cecil (manaman)

You know you're wired when...

You prefer rechargeable batteries.

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Life does not stop with a pacemaker, even though it caught me off guard.