Advice

I am a 30 year old male who has just had an ICD fitted - and boy am i glad to have found this site!! There are not many sites in the UK which cater for ICD so extremely grateful (Edinburgh to what Based).The reactions from friends and family pre post diagnosis was just like me, utter disbelief - having previously been a good standard amateur boxer, marathon runner, keep fit Maniac and general nutcase to a new found sense of trepitadtion...what will i be able to do??!!! In all honesty my cardiologist has been fantastic, although they have said they are not sure what I will be able to do exercise wise, I just wondered what you guys in the know can do?! i know its based on individuals and they condition but would be great to get a feel for it?!
Your help would be greatly appreciated...
Darren

8 Comments

Arrhythmia Alliance

by golden_snitch - 2011-06-04 03:06:08

Hi Darren,
welcome to the club! I don't have an ICD, but a pacer. Just wanted to give you the link to the "Arrhythmia Alliance", a UK based heart rhythm charity:
http://www.heartrhythmcharity.org.uk/
They have lots of info material, a telephone helpline, a mailinglist (via yahoo groups), they organize patient events etc. So, check them out!
Best wishes
Inga

Exercise prospects

by ElectricFrank - 2011-06-05 02:06:13

You should be able to get back to a good level of activity although heavy impact stuff like boxing might not be a good ideal. The pacemaker itself can take it just fine, but it could affect the lead wires to the heart.

By the way yours is a very common story. The kind of heart problem that requires a pacer is electrical which isn't likely to be affected by being in good shape. Watch out for terms like heart block. They are easily confused with blocked arteries, but really indicate that a nerve bundle that carries pacing information is blocked.

Welcome to the site,

frank

Heart rate

by golden_snitch - 2011-06-05 03:06:27

Hi again,
forgot something:
Exercising with an ICD can be a problem because the ICD is set to kick in/shock you at a specific heart rate. When you get your heart rate up while exercising, it could happen that you reach the rate at which the ICD interferes. I have heard about this problem from several young people with ICD - younger people have per se a higher heart rate and can easily go up to around 200bpm when exercising. So, what's important here is that the rate at which the ICD interferes is programmed not too low. And I have also heard that ICD patients have been prescribed betablockers, not only to treat arrhythmia but also just to lower the heart rate a bit, and thereby, prevent that the ICD shocks when not necessary. That's something I'd ask the doctors about.
Best wishes
Inga

Pacer here also

by COBradyBunch - 2011-06-05 06:06:01

You can, if your doc says it is okay, continue to live a full life. I am 52 and had my pacer put in at 50 after some passing out episodes when they found my heart was flatlining for several seconds at a time (the strip looks really weird... heart starts slowing down, then litterally nothing for several seconds then it starts to come back until it reaches a normal rhythm again). Anyway... Just got back from a 65+ mile bike ride in the mountains of CO. Talk to your doc, get your settings right (don't believe the BS about setting you to a max 120 which they tried to tell me at first) and go for it, of course if the doc says that is all right. I am meeting more and more paced athletes and outdoors people every day.

If you want to take a peek at what I did with my pacer today here it is. You really should be able to continue to live and enjoy life, which is what it is all about after all isn't it. If you couldn't life and enjoy it why bother with the hardware? http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90363977

thanks Bradybunch

by gulliver80 - 2011-06-05 11:06:10

I woke one morning after boxing training to find my heart racing, literally jumping out of my skin, breathless and extremely worried - i called 911 and was taken to hospital - my HR was 168 at resting - with chaotic rythyms - then dropping down to a junctional rythym of 25-28 bpm (at this point i was not on any meds, beta blockers etc..) and this remianed like this for over a week.....the docs were really scratching their heads! In the evening whilst sleeping i would be woken by the docs as my heart rate was dropping to 20 etc - quite frightening if im being honest. What really hit me was people being admitted with heart attacks on say the Sat and released by the wednesday, i was in for 27 days - i just did not understand what was happening..... to go from being super active to managing a few steps then feeling like i was going to collapse was a real shock. Even now i still struggle to comprehend what has happened, i just hope that the fatigue im feeling and tenderness (pectoral muscle was lifted to fit the ICD deep within my chest) soon goes and i can get back to doing the things which i love!


I will make sure i find out exactly what my settings are during my visit to the clinic next week and look forward to doing similar distances on my new bike!

thanks - all thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

by gulliver80 - 2011-06-05 11:06:47

Thanks guys - with so many questions its great to hear from people in the know.

D

HA HA HA

by gulliver80 - 2011-06-07 01:06:26

Love it Frank - someone with the same thought process as me.....

Solution

by ElectricFrank - 2011-06-07 01:06:28

Find the same boxing opponent and have him punch you from the opposite side to knock you back into normal rhythm. LOL

frank

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A pacemaker suddenly quitting is no more likely to happen than you are to be struck by lightening.