to electric frank and don r

Hi; I am still here . no new pacemaker yet. Went to heart docs yesterday but saw everyone but the doctor, This is what I was told, I hope the two of you can interpret this hunca munca because Im not sure what is even wrong with me, First they said I am pacing no lower than 49 because I am set at 50. also the pa said I only pace 39% of the time and I am not really pacemaker dependent, I have between ! and 5 months left before the lower lead will stop pacing and I should watch for my pulse at 65 I will need to call them right away, They said it could be any time now. They think I need to see a neurologist for the fatigue and numbness I am feeling in my cheek and lower lip. The tech told me in the last 3 months since my last visit I had 8,000 high rate episodes . none lasting more than 3 minutes and most at 165 beats per minute. I will backtrack, In 2002 I was blacking out and told I had sick sinus syndrome, I got the dual chamber medtronic kappa model, I did not start with the tachycardias until 3 years later. I have rate drop episodes many times a day, I also take 50 mg of metoprolol each day to stop the high rate episodes but obviosly its not syopping them when I had 8,000 in 3 months What does all this mean? and is tjhis the normal for sick sinus syndrome? sorry for such a long rant but I need to get a grip on all this ... thank you

3 Comments

Croaking Pm Btry

by donr - 2012-06-28 01:06:33

RMGD: I've been there & done that w/ the same model Medtronics you have. I got mine in Feb 2003 & changed it out in Aug 2010.

Their battery predictions are pretty good. Mine went into EOL mode three days before the predicted date & I went into 65 BPM pacing. I felt it happen, but did not realize it was happening. It went into EOL at 12:20 Sat when I had an appt to arrange a date for thr change out on the next tues. They actually did it on a Thurs.

I'll let Frank take care of all the other issues, save one - 8000 high rate episodes in three months.

I'll assume it was a full 90 days - that's 24X60X90 minutes = 129,600 minutes. That's 129600/8000 = 16.2 minutes per high rate episode. But no episode lasted more than 3 min - that means on average, AT THE WORST, you were having a high rate episode about 3/16.2 = 1/5 or 20 % of the time. Now that's a lot of the time to be suffering high rate episodes.

I would say that just based on this examination of your episodes, you have the right to feel a bit crappy!

Don

to don r

by rosemarys granddaughter - 2012-06-28 05:06:23

Thank you for the comment. I guess I need to understand why I have the tachys and bradys and rate drops . No one ever really explains the whole picture to me and i quit the electo cardiologist 4 years ago beacause he sid I was asking too many questions. and I thought who the hell is this who is suppose to be my doctor.. so I said adios. Do you know what they consider pacemaker dependent? Why would I have agreed to this pacemaker life if I was not going to depend on it to fix the electric malfunctions that brought me to this place. I read your blogs on post traumatic stress disorder. amen viet nam. no more needs to be said of the agony you have endured but it leaves a permanant tatoo in your life I did not suffer viet nam but my 13 year old son died of suicide in 1988 and I am suffering post tramatic tress also .. . support groups therapy all help. but the sorrow remains.. Maybe this is why many of us have broken hearts,, our tradgedies broke them and the pacemakers cant fix that

You Needed a new EP!!!

by donr - 2012-06-29 12:06:57

RMGD: Just came from your Pvt Msg to me - found the msg you referred to.

I'm not sure that ANYONE knows or could explain WHY you have the electrical problems you have. I've explained it to a couple people as being like a TV set - one day it just quits - no reason, it just quits. Our heart's electrical systems are like that. They have built in redundancies to take care of those events. In a couple cases, they are three deep - but as you get further from the primary system, they become less accurate in their timing, so relying on them is not very comfy.

I once sacked a surgeon for that kind of an attitude. The most common word I use when talking to those guys is "WHY"! In my book, it's the patient's right to ask questions.

PM Dependent : we have a bunch of them around here. Part of the definition includes pacing very nearly 100% of the time. But there is more to it - you must have a situation where if the PM quits, you die - like if you have zero SA node due to an ablation - or zero AV node due to ablation. I am paced about 99.6% in the atria - but that is because my HR is suppressed by meds to kill PVC's & the PM runs my heart at about 75 for comfort; if the PM suddenly quit, I'd feel like crap, but my heart would continue to operate.

I liked your definition of dependent - I agree, but unfortunately, the real definition is a bit more restrictive!

You are correct about PTSD never completely going away - I have talked w/ no one who has/had it (or their family) who will say that there is zero residual from it. I've talked to a wife who said that there were residual effects in her husband that just never left him. He was essentially over it, but was permanently affected in subtle ways - some of them even he did not recognize. I can see why you would have the symptoms after the loss of a young teenager. That has GOT to hurt - & probably will forever.

Don

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Pacemakers are very reliable devices.