Pacer check soon

I am paced at 60 and don't really feel it. But I get very breathless when I walk briskly, often with pain in my legs and across my chest. Would increasing my rate help this? I have rate response on but I'm not keen to increase it as it seems too sensitive to bumps in the road, scratching my ear etc ! I have a Medtronic Sensia put in last year but removed three times for issues with the leads so was only signed off in July 2013. I am hoping to feel better than I do at the moment.

I would appreciate any advice on this before my check up - thank you.

5 Comments

How much exercise

by Theknotguy - 2013-12-21 03:12:13

You didn't indicate how much exercise you've been getting. Being paced at 60 on the low end is where I am.

For my first exercise post PM I did get breathless with pain in arm and chest. But that was because of the lack of exercise due to the trauma before I got the PM.

I had a stress test done and now am doing rehab. Their target goal is 140 BPM (Beats per minute) at 4% grade on the treadmill. I'm doing 120BPM at 3% right now. I had shortness of breath, chest pain, arm, and jaw pain when I first started. As I've exercised more consistently the pain has gone away. I also learned some stretching exercises to help loosen up the "tight" pocket where the PM has been inserted. That's helped with the pain.

Unless your upper rate for the PM is also low, I don't see where upping the lower speed would help you. I've heard of people on the forum getting their upper rate set to 160 but they're training for the marathon or doing bike racing or something similar. For general exercise most PM's are set well within the range you need to exercise.

Do you think you could get some supervised physical therapy? Then you would know the parameters where you start to have pain.

Hope this helps.

Theknotguy

Exercise.....

by Suzie_G - 2013-12-22 06:12:59

I hate exercise ! At the mo, I am having trouble just walking briskly, so need to work out why that is happening. I was ok pre pacemaker but was inactive for quite a while through the 4 ops I had. I want to be more active but this intermittent pain really puts me off trying harder.
I am having an echo and some other test in conjunction with my fibromyalgia so guess I will have to wait the outcome of those.

Thanks for your response - appreciated.

What are your settings?

by KAG - 2013-12-22 11:12:47

60 sounds like your lower rate setting which your PM won't let your HR get lower than it. That wouldn't play into your rate when you're moving around.

Why do you have a PM, SSS, AV block? Is your rate response turned ON? What's your upper tracking rate?

All this info is on your copy of your interrogation report which you should have gotten a copy when they did a PM check.

Without knowing more info I'd guess, purely a guess, that you need a setting adjustment. Maybe just the UTR.

Settings

by Suzie_G - 2013-12-22 12:12:33

My upper is 130 I think but I can't see me getting anywhere near that the way I feel. PM was for SSS and 2:1 block. Rate response is on but I have no idea how it is set up, other than it returns to 60 in 2.5 mins which I asked for, 5 mins was too long.

Perhaps your UTR?

by KAG - 2013-12-28 12:12:12

If you're active 130 could be low for you.

My RR is Off so I don't have experience with that. At first my UTR was 140 and when I first went out for a walk and started up hill I started to feel bad, SOB and my legs felt like I was walking in deep sand. I noticed that my HR went up to 130's then dropped like a rock to 60's. What was happening was that the PM hit the UTR and did what it was supposed to, slowed the HR in half. When I met with my PM techs and went over my symptoms and data they upped my UTR to 160 and I've been fine since then. I kept a log showing activity and HR's to go over with them and think that helped.

Hope this helps
Kathy

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