CRT-d settings vs. fatigue

I am three months out of CRT-d implant. (medtronic protecta) I have DC with LBBB. EF at placement 25. No CHF symptoms, CRT placed in hopes LBBB contributed to heart failure and will improve heart function. I felt worse after I got the CRT-d. Fatigue and breathless after stairs or inclines. Settings were adjusted by having an echo done with the pm tech. Felt great, back to normal for about a month. Then started feeling bad again. I kept blaming fatigue on other things but finally called pm tech and was told to come in for adjustment. She said for 10-15 seconds several times every hour my chambers weren't synronized. This had been going on for month and a half and she changed settings to correct it. She said that hopefully that would take care of the fatigue as well. But it didn't. Today was the worst day I've had so far. Arms felt like lead and so tired and grumpy! So here are my questions: how can my heart's chambers be synchronized properly, but me still be more tired then ever? If the settings are good for the CR which is the most important thing, what other setting is there that could be tweaked so I can operate? And how can the great settings I got from the echo/pm tech have only lasted for a month? How often do settings change? I'm just three months out and so confused. Thanks for any ideas.

1 Comments

I'm always afraid of my ICD!

by kristanlinnea - 2012-07-29 12:07:42

Dear All,
I've been living with an ICD since 2000 and there are so many things that no one told me. When the battery started to die in 2006, an alarm went off every day (while I was working on my house and working at my job) and it freaked me out. That was AFTER it had to be adjusted to not shock me unless my heart rate was ridiculous - I was shocked four times by the first battery. Then, this January, I was shocked 15 - yep, 15 times in one week. And that was for ATRIAL fibrillation! I went to the hospital, of course, but they could find no reason and adjusted my second battery to not do that...huh? I'm really young looking for my age (42 and the students I work with don't know it) and everyone at work seems to think I'm full of bull. I get "ghost shocks," feel every PVC, and have nothing but anxiety all the time. Am I alone? I feel like I'm going to get shocked in public again and it worries me all the time. Please let me know how your life is. I'm happy to be alive but I'm getting bitter and I just feel so alone.

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