6 month check up

Hope this post finds everyone doing well.
I have a 15 year old St. Jude mech. mitral valve.
In July 2012 I passed out 2 times within a month and was advised to have a pacemaker placed. Surgery went well. I went in for a 6 month follow up since the placing of my Boston Scientific pacer. A few things are worth mentioning. After taking my vitals (all normal) the Dr. did an interrogation on my pacemaker. The results showed a couple of things. (1) The voltage that my pacer is putting out has increased since the install which tells me that my heart is requiring a little more punch to stimulate the muscle and (2) an event/episode was recorded revealing a ventricular tachycardia.The event record showed a ventricular heartbeat of 160 bpm for about 30 seconds. My cardiologist didn't like this at all and said he wanted to run it by the Boston Scientific rep.(who didn't like it either. My cardiologist is writing a me script for a full blood panel ,a stress test ,and an echo.I didn't like what I read online about Vent.Tachy. If I read the words sudden death one more time I think I'm going to have a heart attack.There's my latest update and thanks for listening,Finkelbeat

3 Comments

Do you exercise?

by ma_ku - 2013-03-15 07:03:30

Hi,

Do you do any exercise that could have got your heart rate up to that level? Did the cardiologist explain why he didn't like it?

I am 41 years old and had a PM implanted 3 weeks ago. I am back up to running 5 miles every other day. According to my heart rate monitor watch, my heartbeat regularly exceeds the PM upper rate setting of 150 (peaking at my pre-implantation max heart rate of 184 on certain hills). I feel totally fine while this happens and it's a normal response to running for me. (My heart response is normal under exercise conditions based on pre implantation stress test).

I am wondering if they will think I have been having "events" which are actually completely normal for me! I will be taking an exercise diary to my next appointment to correlate with any "events".

Can you recall any exercise or other event associated with the event?

Mark

Angiogram

by graham1 - 2013-03-15 08:03:52

Hi Finklebeat.
Like yourself I was found to have had episodes of tachycardia and, in addition to the tests you had, I was also given an angiogram. You might like to enquire whether this procedure is called for.
Regards,
Graham

Do I exercise/angiogram

by Finkelbeat - 2013-03-17 01:03:27

Exercise ?,No ...(unfortunately). I think my cardiologist doesn't like the fact that the 160 bpm episode came out of nowhere,unrelated to any exercise. I'll inquire about adding an angiogram to my series of tests. Thanks for the input,Finkelbeat

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