Magnets and Anesthesia

I had a surgery today and one of the things my cardiologist wrote on the clearance paper was for them to put a magnet over my pacer when administering the anesthesia. Thing is when they put the magnet over it, I felt like my heart was stopping and they quickly had to pull the magnet off. I'm wondering has anyone else ever had to have such a weird thing done before? I slightly worried that it did something to my pacer, because when I woke up afterwords my heart rate was in the 60's. My normal rate is 78 to 88. It's been hours now and it feels like my heart rate is still just as slow. I have not chest discomfort and I am assuming that maybe the rate is low because of the pain medication they gave me while I was under.

5 Comments

Thanks!

by Darvox - 2013-12-20 01:12:51

I'll read up on these articles. The place I had my surgery today was a different hospital than where my cardiologist works. In fact the hospital is barely a hospital after they got me up to the floor for surgery. They had doors open and I'm not sure, but as they had me moving onto the table, I could see a person they were working on in the room across from me. I saw his brain--Needless to say I hope I never have to have work done there again.

Anyways, I'll read up on this and hope that my cardiologist isn't out of town next week for the holidays. Thanks again.

programming

by Tracey_E - 2013-12-20 10:12:14

Sounds like your programming needs to be put back where it was. The magnet puts it in the mode where it paces at a steady rate. Theoretically you remove the magnet and it goes back to full function but it sounds like you are still in test mode. Ditto what Grateful Heart said, having the rep there is better than the magnet, but sometimes it's hard to tell the drs that.

Magnets.....my pet peeve

by Grateful Heart - 2013-12-20 12:12:58

The problem with using a magnet is the device can read it as a programming signal and change the settings.

I would call your Cardio in the AM and ask to have the device checked to ensure you have the correct settings still.

The following are 2 articles which discuss this problem. I wish some of my reps would read them. The first article happens to be co-written by Dr. Oz (for Dr. Oz fans).

The 2nd article has been posted here before by Donr.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420917/

www.cardiacengineering.com/pacemakers-wallace.pdf

A rep should be there to begin with to program the device and check it after the surgery. The problem is trying to convince some Doctors and reps the importance of this. Some are great and informed about it.....some are not and think it is not a big deal....but....it's not their heart.

You'll be ok, just get it checked. Let us know how it goes.

Grateful Heart


Scary stuff

by Darvox - 2013-12-21 02:12:29

I didn't get a chance to call me doc today until his office was closed. I've been doing the post surgery in and out of awareness all day.

Reading those articles though, that's some scary stuff. Those are things I'll have to keep in mind to ask about when ever, I have to have something like this done again.

Scary stuff

by Darvox - 2013-12-21 02:12:57

I didn't get a chance to call me doc today until his office was closed. I've been doing the post surgery in and out of awareness all day.

Reading those articles though, that's some scary stuff. Those are things I'll have to keep in mind to ask about when ever, I have to have something like this done again.

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