Keep trying

• by dickwhitt
• 2012-02-06 08:02:03
• Complications
• 1672 views
• 2 comments

Seven years ago I had my first pacemaker implanted and not long afterwards I could ‘feel’ what I thought were peculiar rhythms and I reported these to my technician who said that all the checks on the pacemaker (Medtronic) were fine. I also saw the consultant who suggested that newly implanted patients were sometimes overly sensitive, so I accepted this, although I still felt that I had a problem with the pacemaker.
After several visits and tweaks to my pacemaker I gave up complaining and assumed that it was just something that I had to put up with.
It even got to the point where I thought that I was having panic attacks which were causing the problem and I was taking medication for this.
Recently I was experiencing even worse problems and my pulse was dropping down to 30 bpm. I was originally implanted for 2 for 1 heart block.
At last I saw a new technician who was willing to believe that there was a problem, although again, the pacemaker checks were ‘fine’ apart from a couple of lead fault reports. So he arranged for an x-ray and I asked for a twenty four hour heart monitor.
The result – the x-ray showed a fault in the lead and the twenty four hour monitor showed that my pulse was, to quote the technician, ‘all over the place’!!
Conclusion – faulty pacemaker!
Within a week, January 2012, I had a new lead and pacemaker and all now seems fine but I am still left with two questions. How long were the leads and pacemaker at fault??
So, if you have a persistent problem remember:
Pacemakers are NOT perfect. Change to a helpful technician. ASK for a twenty four hour monitor or X-RAY.