Adjusting

Hello everyone! I am so happy to find there is a site devoted to pacemakers! I was diagnosed with Sick Sinus Syndrome in December 2012 (after nearly 17 years of being told I was too young to have a heart problem). My resting HR was always in the low 40s. I always attributed it to being in good shape as I run, bike, etc. During a recent medical test, it was noted my HR was 30. I was awake and felt fine, but the Dr. was worried. After wearing a Holter monitor for the 6th time in my 35 years, it finally showed over 100 pauses of 2-3 seconds during the night, as well as short runs of SVT, PVCs, etc. I had my pacer put in on 28Dec12. Initially, I felt HORRIBLE. I was so hopeful that I would just have it done and feel better. After about a week of crazy high, then suddenly low blood pressures, extreme fatigue and the pacemaker stimulating my diaphragm, they turned down my amplitude. Thank god, that stopped all of those feelings. It took about 10 days to even be able to handle walking around the house. I have my next check on Monday. I am set at 60/110. I think I will ask to have the low rate changed to 55. It has been very hard/weird to adjust to 60bpm. It feels wrong. :) I am anxious but still nervous to start working out again. I usually do 30-45 minutes 5 times a week. How long did any of you have to wait to go back to 'normal life"? I am glad that I am not on any blood thinners and am sleeping better than I have in years. (No more waking up feeling like someone was smothering me with a pillow.) I am hopeful that now I will be able to run further/faster since I'm able to fully recover when I sleep at night at 60 bpm instead of 30-35!

2 Comments

Hey welcome!

by Stephanie3 - 2013-01-11 08:01:12

I had the same problem I'm 22 years old had all the problems at 18 and was told I was to young and to just deal with it until I met my doctor now I have a pacemaker and doing better! It took me a while to get back to normal but I get better everyday! Everyone heals differently! Hope you continue to do good! Take care

Stephanie

adjusting to the speed

by Tracey_E - 2013-01-11 10:01:51

I was in the 40's all my life, dropped into the 30's the last year before I got the pm, was in the low 20's the day I got it. (I also had a dr who didn't want to put a pm in a young patient. Who cares how old i was?! I felt like crap and there was a fix, stalling because of my age was dumb but that's another soapbox!) A normal rate felt horribly fast at first!! But it wasn't too fast, I just wasn't used to anything close to normal. Now I don't even notice it.

Oxygen is amazing stuff, huh? So glad you hear you are sleeping better. Even if we think we don't have symptoms, our organs are being robbed of oxygen when our hr is that low and it takes its toll on our bodies.

Check with your dr, but you should be able to run whenever you feel up to it. Try walking first, the impact might not feel too good until you've healed more. By 6-8 weeks, you should be back to anything you want.

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