Hello

• by CatCow
• 2012-09-10 11:09:02
• General Posting
• 959 views
• 3 comments

Been pretty busy just reading through old posts, but would love some input on the situation. My cardiologist says I should get a pacemaker. I have an appointment on Thursday to see an EP at a different hospital for a second opinion, and would like to hear from you guys what questions I should have for him about all this. I have a few, but I know there must be some important things I'm missing.

And now for some background... This all started last July, when I blacked out while driving. Not only that, but I was on a busy Interstate doing 60mph in a fully loaded gasoline tanker! I woke up in a very disorientated state, hanging sideways from the seatbelt. I managed to undo the seatbelt and walk right out through where the windshield had been(1-piece unit that popped out in the roll-over), not a scratch on me. Extremely lucky that it did not burn. Only the smallest compartment of the trailer leaked at a slow rate, but I didn't stick around for that and was taken away in an ambulance.

I ended up spending the whole week in the hospital as they did every imaginable test. The only thing that came up was a rather severe vasovagal response. First in the ER, I was laying down when they did the first line and became rather nauseated and flushed, but recovered relatively quickly. I wasn't on an EKG at that time, so who knows what was missed. Then a few days later as they were preparing me for stress tests and MRIs and the like, I had a larger IV needle put in - was fine at first, then a moment later I sat up - and felt like crap as the room started spinning. Laid back down quickly and hit the call button, and a few seconds later half the nurses in the area came running in saying my heart had paused for a few seconds. This of course leads to the cardiologist being called in, and before I left the hospital they put in a heart monitor - a Medtronic Reveal XT to be precise.

So for the last year I have been unable to drive(really rough for a truck driver), mostly unemployed(recently changed), on BP meds, and mostly sitting around with nothing to do. Up comes a couple of trips to the GP. First visit uneventful, he wants to check my cholesterol so sends me back to the lab for a blood draw. No problems, although numbers still slightly high.

A few weeks later I go back in on an unrelated matter(infection), and he wants to do another blood draw before he puts me on antibiotics. This time, as soon as the needle goes in, things go downhill in the space of a few seconds, and the next thing I know I'm waking up and they tell me I passed out. The nurses didn't seem terribly concerned, but I knew better, and grabbed the remote for the device and hit the record button. Strange how it happened on a simple blood draw, but never had an issue with that before - only the IV's, or the unknown cause from the accident. So anyhow, I call up the cardio office and make an appt to go in to have the device downloaded after the weekend.

Here is what it showed:
http://www.kd7bcy.com/images/fma/ekg.jpg

Unfortunately my doctor was on vacation, so I didn't get to talk to him until almost 2 weeks after the incident, but I did talk to one of the other cardiologists there as well the day after the download - both recommended the pacemaker.

So that's where I am now. Waiting to talk to another doc to see what he says, but expecting to just go ahead with the PM sometime in the next month or so.