Day 5 and just not feeling right

I wanted to post my continuing experience on Day 5 of my pacemaker experience.

I did have to go to the ER last night, I just havent really felt right since day one.

I was initially set at 60 bpm last Thursday and was fine on Friday, some of the day.

But, the weekend really I just felt off, not right. I still have the lightheadness that I had before the pacemaker.

I came home from the ER with some interesting info- I was now adding a heartbeat here and there- which was causing me to go out of rhythm and drop down into the 50's, then the pacer kicked in.

It really exacerbated my lightheaded, tight neck feelings when those episodes happened. They told me that I would be safe to go home and come to the office for a pacermaker interrogation in the AM.

I was in the office first thing, and the Medtronic tech did his thing. They brought me down and up and asked how I felt at each interval.

They noticed then too that I was gaining an extra beat at 60 beat per min, but when the upped the rate to 70 beats per min, the skipped beats then stopped, to a point where they were just a few here and there.

The intercranial pressure, however, distressingly, is still part of my reality, which really is causing me huge amounts of stress, because it is so constant and present.

My Cardio doc chatted with me for a few. He said that they did not pick up extra beats on the two holter monitors.

They gave me also a prescription of digionex to take.

These are some questions I have, since I really am still feeling pretty out of whack:

1.Is it possible that putting a pacer in is now causing me to have this problem with extra beats? Two holter monitors prior to the surgery showed just a low rate, 32 bpm at night, average of 47 per day.

2.The intercranial pressure I feel is really just out of whack. I call it lightheadness, but it is more like pressure I feel, inside of my head. Would it be possible that putting my rate up to 70 is causing some preexisting non heart condition, such as a brain tumor, is not causing the condition to now magnify with the increased heart pumping ability?

3.I have a two lead pacer, is there any other settings that can cause this? I go back in on Monday, but I am not all that confident that these conditions are going to improve.

4.I am going to a neurologist on Friday, I have an MRI compatible pacer- a Medtronic. Is there any special thing I need to do before the expect MRI that they will send me for?

I know that the pacemaker wasnt going to cure everything, but wow, I can say the one top symptom that I wanted to fix, the lightheadeness is totally still my worse symptom.

I feel that I now didnt cover all my bases and didnt do a neurology appointment before agreeing to put a pacer in.

All my cardio tests and symptoms said it might make sense to put one in, but right now, I am feeling pretty much a big dose of buyers remorse.

At day 5 post surgery, I know that there will be some difficulty, my incision area is perfect, zero pain. But everything else seems off, or some other condtion has been magnified.

Am I being too impatient, or does it really take several trips to the Pacer Tech to dial in something that works well?

Right now, with the way I am feeling, I am more concerned about a stroke or some other malady befalling me-

Break in time is a very individual thing, but I am feeling like I have made a life altering decision that right now if not feeling like the right one.

4 Comments

Hang in there :)

by Heidiglassmeyer - 2012-04-04 01:04:04

Hi JDS! Sounds like you've had a rough first week with your PM. In my opinion I think it's a little too early for you to decide that the PM was the wrong choice. Try to give yourself some time.
As far as your symptoms.. Do you feel that the ER did a thorough work up for you and was there any reason to believe you could be at risk of a stroke? Did they check your blood work for potential clots and do a full work up?
Sounds like you feel there is something else causing your continued pressure and you'll have further testing done. Did they look any further into that issue when you were in the hospital?
How's your blood pressure been lately?
In my experience, yes, it took several trips and a treadmill session with my tech to get my settings just right but we didn't even start until several weeks post op.
I know we have a few members who deal with strange beats, PVC, PAC's and I'm sure they'll chime in. I remember once in the hospital a random tech came in and adjusted my PM prior to a cardio cath the next morning and I was left with horrible skipped beats overnight (also have a dual lead PM). I did NOT feel well but tried to sleep through it. The next morning as I was on the table in the cath lab, my cardio took one look at the screen above me he asked the tech what was up, pointing at the screen, I could see the skipped beat every time. He had the tech change my settings right then and holy cow, the strange beats stopped immediately, ahhh!
Try not to put so much pressure on yourself but if you feel your symptoms get worse or they change I would not hesitate to call your cardio back!
Hopefully everything will be settled in the next week and you'll start feeling better and more confident with your decision. Try to give yourself a break :)
Take care,
Heidi

Thanks for the advice

by jds66 - 2012-04-04 01:04:27

Thank you both for the advice. I do appreciate it, and being that I am really just so wired up, well, literally now, I am not getting really any sleep.

Stress I know is a great cause of many things. My primary care physican sort of sunk my ship today when I went to him for some more stress medication. He got real angry when he heard I had made a pacemaker decision without him.

Made it sound like I didnt do my homework or something. I dont know, it sort of left me feeling that my 47bpm avg during the day and mid thirties at night was nothing to be worried about.

For the problems I have been having all ready, it was just another slap in the face, I dont think stress alone caused my bradycardia as my primary doc thinks, obviously my cardio docs had some real reasons to put this in me- I guess I am just way way taking this to the nth degree because I feel so lousy- really, worse than I did before the procedure.

I only mentioned stroke as a worry with all this head pressure, no, there was nothing medically substantiated that I was likely to suffer one. Just the fear I guess took over.

And, my lightheadeness is more a squeezing of my head, almost as if you are trying to inflate it to over its psi range, if it were a tire. I also have this crzy ringing in my ear for the last month, hence I think a neuro workup might at the least, calm me down a bit.

Again, thanks for your replies so quickly, I am just having lots of trouble adjusting, mentally and body wise, and with the lack of sleep I am probably not helping my status either.

Time to calm down

by ElectricFrank - 2012-04-04 01:04:29

It is more likely that the stress of your worry is causing the pressure in your head as well as the extra beats. They are called PVC's and can be pretty intimidating, while actually quite benign.

Another possibility is that you are having vertigo which is an inner ear balance thing. It's common during surgery with an anesthetic or sedative for them to put your body in stressful positions since you can't complain. While implanting the pacemaker it is handy for them to turn your head away from the pacemaker site to give them more room to work. Spending 2 hours with your neck hyperextended can cause headaches including the pressure in your head, and vertigo since it puts indirect pressure on the inner ear area. I chose to remain totally awake during my implant and several times had to take care of myself. At one time someone decided to use my chest as an elbow rest.

A way to tell the difference between vertigo and light headedness is by the sensations. With vertigo the room feels like it is going around or is unstable. Light headedness is caused by a shortage of blood flow in the brain and gives that sparkly gray look like you are about to pass out. Oddly as important as the difference is most doctors haven't a clue about diagnosing it. As a pilot I've had experience with both.

So it is up to you to calm down about the whole thing so you can give useful information to the doctor. All a bunch of neurological tests will do is increase the chance of some side effect putting you in real trouble. If they can't find something there is a tendency to start down the "lets try this" path.

best wishes,

frank

Hope things are better

by Denise Aug - 2012-04-05 05:04:54

Hey. Just reading through and I cannot believe ALL that you have been through!!!! Like the surgery and recovery not enough stress on your body already. That is the thing try not to stress, it is amazing what that will actually do to your body. I am actually starting to believe that is how my problems started. So I think it was today you have your other appointments, hopefully you have good Dr's where you are. We moved to SC from Long Island 6 years ago....let's put it this way...I have no PCP, can't find one I like!!!!! Guess now I have no choice LOL.

Ok so today we are both one week out...and I am hoping that by the time you read this you will have already started to get some of the answers that you need. I know that will help you to feel a little better. Hang in there :-)

-Denise

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