Another question

Since I am 100% paced in both my atrium and ventricle, I was wondering what happens when my battery life is low and I have to have a new PM? It seems the doctor will have to take the old leads out of the present PM to insert the new one? Does my heart just stop for awhile? Thanks.

2 Comments

Replacement.

by ElectricFrank - 2012-02-11 11:02:19

Some docs will go so far as to provide external pacing during the replacement.

I'm 100% paced in ventricles so had the same thing as far as removing the leads from the pacer. I chose to remain totally awake during the procedure and ask the cardiologist to let me know when he was going to move the lead. His approach is to have both the old and new pacer programmed for ventricle only pacing at about 85 bpm. The new one was lying on my chest with attachment screws loosened to accept the leads. He then quickly removed the lead from the old and inserted it into the new one. I think I skipped about 3 beats, which is no big deal. He then moved the atrial lead. At one point I kidded them about the possibility of him fumbling the new one or maybe it wasn't working right. His response was that he always has the old one still running and available hanging by the atrial lead as backup.

He did a slick job of it, and with no anesthetic or sedatives I was able to skip recovery. The nice thing with a replacement is that the same leads are used and there is none of the raised arm restrictions. It's more just giving the incision a few days to heal. I was out for my daily walk the next day.

frank

100% paced here too

by SaraTB - 2012-02-12 04:02:26

and when my replacement was implanted, it was pretty similar to Frank's experience: although an external pacemaker could have been used, my doctor did the 'switchover' so quickly I hardly had time to notice.

The whole team were aware that I am 100% paced, and were all ready at the right moment. I was awake, although sedated, so I knew what was happening.

When the time comes, talk to you doctor about your concerns (they're perfectly reasonable!) and ask whether an external pacemaker will be available or what the plan is.

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So, my advice is to go about your daily routine and forget that you have a pacemaker implanted in your body.