Wondering

I got a pm June 21. it still feels weird. Sometimes, it hurts. But, I am back at the gym and the A Fib is pretty much gone. I don't know if I needed one because I was on Flecanaide and I think that was causing problems. I had an ablation in Apr 12. Just before the pm, I was converting on my own when I would have A Fib. On the 20th of June, I started to convert all day, which was strange..so went to ER. They said that my heart was not beating for 6 beats each time I converted. Well, I was told that the flecanaide can cause some problems. Not sure, but I said switch the med. They didn't want me to leave and put in the pm the next day. Now the A Fib is very little and I don't know if I really needed the pm. Maybe the ablation worked...they didn't wait long enough to find out..said that I was in danger. Wonder if anyone else has had this happen??

3 Comments

yes

by Tracey_E - 2012-09-10 10:09:00

It's been known to happen, your heart fix itself on its own after the pm, but it's not common and even if the pm helped you short term, it still did its job when you needed it. The easiest way to tell if you still need it is to check the report, it'll tell exactly how many times it's paced since the last check. Remember that it only has to kick in once during a long pause to save your life.

Tracey is right

by PacerRep - 2012-09-11 01:09:23

Also another reason the A-Fib may be minimized is a concept known as OverDrive pacing. When you pace the atrium at a programmed rate (usually 70-80) it has been shown in some studies to minimize atrial fibrillation. How much are you atrial paced at this point? If its a high number, that maybe why your not seeing as much A-Fib now.

Here is one of the studies if your interested, there have been several.
http://europace.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/2/108.full.pdf

Afib gone

by ILoominatedEKG - 2012-09-12 01:09:26

My PM paced out my afib. I still get small episodes, but it's really under control. It doesn't always work that way and may fail later on, but it's really kind of a side effect. They wouldn't have put in a PM for afib. They put it in when my heart stopped while trying to convert. Luckily, they killed two birds with one stone.

Best wishes - Dave

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