base rate??

Hi everyone hope everyone is ticking along nicely, iv been reading posts on this site really trying to understand how this pm works and how other people cope with day to day worries and issues which i find very helpful and reassuring. Im new to a pm only on day 10 but feeling so much better now than prevous days site still slightly sore and shoulder and neck area stiffish and has bouts of been painful and had pm check and its paceing me correctly get another pm check in 5 weeks hopfully with a green light to drive and excersice at the gym :). I do have a question the base hr my pm is set at is 60 in DDDmode iv read on here that some are set at 70/80 wow that seems high i assume this rate means ya pacer wont let ya heart drop below that well if so will that not feel like ya heart is pounding all the time? also some say they get lower heart rate than there base rate surly the pm should kick in before so it wont drop this to me is confusing. i dont have rate response on as my heart does respond to excersice well it used to am just hoping when i get back to gym it still does.

kimbo

6 Comments

Base rate ...we're all different !

by IAN MC - 2013-03-11 06:03:20

Hi Kimbo You ask if someone with a base rate set at 80
would feel as though their heart is pounding all the time.

The answer is "No" because that may well be a normal resting heart rate for them . Normal resting heart rates are considered to be in the range 60 - 100 bpm ( although many people fall outside of this range )

60 bpm may be right for kimbo, but too low for someone else.

Cheers

Ian




Hi Mark

by IAN MC - 2013-03-11 06:03:40

Glad to hear that you're running again ! As a runner you will know how easy it is to hit 80 bpm , or 100, or 120 , or 140 or much higher . I bet that , even with a resting HR of 50, you are nearer to 80 much of the day with normal daily activities.

If you had your PM set at the lower rate of 80 you would probably feel fairly tired at the end of the day without any twitching though !

Cheers

Ian

Mt base rate is 50

by ma_ku - 2013-03-11 06:03:46

Hi,

I had my first pacemaker implanted 3 weeks ago tomorrow. My base rate was set at 50 and the mode is AAI/DDD. I was told that this essentially means that the pacemaker won't let my heart rate go below 50. Rate response is off as my heart response well to exercise.

The low rate was based on the fact that I do a lot of exercise and my resting heart rate is usually in the 50s with no symptoms. Apparently, they don't like to set the low rate too high as unnecessary pacing can actually cause more harm than good.

I think I would be twitching if it was set to 80! Or would I? It's a good question.

I feel great and am back to running as of last Thursday. Will lay off the strength exercises until 6 week checkup though.

Mark

lol

by kimbo - 2013-03-11 07:03:01

thanks for the interest too i know were all different with the rates on which we can function on 60 for me has been my resting rate on all the monitoring they have done on me and i can say ive had my fare share in the last 3 years like you say Mark if we were set at 70/80 would we be buzzing with energy or just even more tired as the day went on iv been tired beyond belief but think its due to recovery iv also felt a bit spacey more than dizzy more so when iv bent down this again may be just recovery i can say since iv had in done i feel more alert and that pumping feeling i got rushing to my head has reduced dramaticly to the fact its almost not there i can get out of bed straight away with out that rush to head and lightheaded pass out feeling:).Does anyone know why some get the heart rate dropping below there base rate is this the pacer not working or just the settings i know were all in different modes.

kimbo

Hi Ian

by ma_ku - 2013-03-11 07:03:13

Thanks. It was a massive boost to my morale to go for my first run after a nearly 3 week hiatus.

I spend most of my day shining a seat with my backside (desk job) and my random sampling does finds my pulse usually in the 50-60 range (although higher when in meetings with certain individuals but that's another story..).

I was curious about how it would make me feel to be artificially paced at 80 though. If the blood is going round "too quickly" would oxygen saturation be too high (dizziness?) or would respiration rate decrease to compensate? kimbo has started an interesting topic!

Mark

Lower Rate

by Janey L - 2013-03-11 09:03:25

Hi. My base rate (lower rate) was set at 60 when I first got my PM but it was too slow for me. I felt tired all the time. It was increased to 75 & I felt much better.Recently it has been lowered to 70 due to other changes to my AV delay. 70 is fine. I never feel my heart beating, I don't feel anything from having the base rate at 70-75. I do know that I did not feel good with it at 60.

Every patient is different & before I had my cardiac problems my normal resting heart rate was 70-80. So that is probably why the setting of 70-75 suits me.

I do have rate response on as I have sick sinus syndrome with chronotropic incompetence (also no AV node now).

Best wishes
Janey

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