New to this group

I needed to read what others were going through with their pacemakers. After reading many posts, I think I am unique.

I don't feel any different. Mine was an emergency insert as I was having episodes so unlike my vertigo. My heart rate was going in the 20s and 30s and stopping during the night. A pacemaker was decided on.

I have had no real issues with it other than the discomfort of sleeping on only one side. Pain has been very minimal (I wanted and needed only Tylenol while in the hospital). Some soreness in the shoulder and arm.

And an anxiousness about not being able to garden. I won't be able to redo the garden this year, but I will be able to play in the dirt.

I also am a DNR-chem code only, even if I am only 60 years old. I have had to have a talk with my family about shutting off the pacemaker if I am in a vegetative state. DO NOT PROLONG MY DEATH! I am hoping that that the heart won't take me from this life....being in a compromising position with Johnny Depp or Kevin Bacon will take me from this world.

My point to all this....I talk to my doctor and the people in the pacemaker clinic at the hospital where I work. I won't be going to all of you for advice...just experiences. Please...if you are having problems...SEE YOUR DOCTOR!

Nice to meet all of you!

6 Comments

Welcome Bobbi

by Zia - 2013-02-12 01:02:05

It's good to know that someone is having a good experience, not only with the PM but also with your advisers. My own experience is an example of the opposite in some ways. My PM was implanted three years ago this month at a hospital 250 miles away from where I live (nothing available closer). Thank goodness there have been no problems with my bionic buddy since then. However, I've not seen the EP since the implant. The only local cardiologist saw me once for a wound check and discharged me from his clinic. Just as well since he retired soon after. I've worked with the medical profession most of my life and have found the experiences of some of the folks here to be all too usual. Too many doctors have been caught up in the medicine for profit whirl and have lost sight of their original humanitarian impulses that may have gotten them into the profession in the first place. That said, just take any advice with the proverbial grain of salt and use other folks experiences to help guide your own decisions, which are, after all, yours alone.

Bobbi..........................

by Tattoo Man - 2013-02-12 02:02:15


........................you know all the Guys above talk sound sense. This Forum is a truly wonderful Global Family and will provide you with pretty much anything that you could ask for ..(within the bounds of decency !)

On the subject of Family, you should know that IAN MC and I are in fact Identical Twins.. Together we rocked Medical knowledge years ago because we were born 11 years apart.

On the subject of 'apart', you can only tell who is who by knowing that he always stands to my left,..is 9 inches taller than me,. and is quite unspeakably handsome.......

....oh, and as Don has pointed out ..we are both Zulus,...but you can see that for yourself, obviously .

I shall sign off now, and add my welcome to the others by echoing Dons words...."Welcome Abored"

So,...assuming that your elastic is intact, you may now wish to let go of your knickers...

Tattoo Man



Great !

by lahbigbro6 - 2013-02-12 02:02:47

Most of time my life is the same ...But sometimes I like to "connect" to my GREAT pacemaker people ! I always have questions years later and everyone is here is so, so helpful. Welcome to our group !

You are not unique

by IAN MC - 2013-02-12 08:02:36

Hi Bobbi It was good to read your post and you are typical rather than unique. The vast majority of people, like yourself, have no problems with a PM.... minimal pain after implant is the norm ; although you wouldn't think it if you read all the posts here.

You may eventually need to call on people's experiences though and there are plenty on here to draw from ! Regrettably some of us have had better advice on here than we have had from some Drs and PM clinic people ; but you may be lucky with yours.

If I read that both Johhny Depp and Kevin Bacon have had sudden cardiac arrest I will know what caused it !

Welcome to the club

Ian

Sorri, Bobbi - (couldn't resist...

by donr - 2013-02-12 09:02:24

...the Devil made me do it!)

You are going to get some advice already.

Re-do your garden this year. That is, unless you live in south FLA, or along the Gulf Coast.

By the time most soil is workable in the US, you will be back to full capability.

Besides, how many folks in the PM clinic, et al, actually host a PM? How many of them know the inner workings & hidden mechanisms of electrical devices in general? How many of them have their advice written by a lawyer, whose only aim is to protect their wallet? If you live by the manual they give you w/ your PM, you will become the worlds dullest person, missing out on a panoply of paroxymal pleasures & a world of wild wonder. To quote (almost) Auntie Mame - "...life is a banquet & some poor #@%'s are starving to death..." Those denizens of the PMC, OTOH, are living fully sated, stupendous 'speriences (that's a little Desi Arnaz lingo for that last alliteration).

Trust Ian on this issue - he's ALWAYS right (well, sometimes)!

Oh, & wait'll you meet ElectricFrank that's going to be a real shock!

And have you read any "TattooMan"? You will - probably before this day is out. He is an inhabitant of the same "Zulu" Time Zone as Ian. Get a good, tight grip on your knickers, that'll be a wild ride...

Then when we get into a friendly free-for-all, you'll forget all about Johnny What's'isname & that guy who came off the belly of a hog.

Welcome abored.

Don

Welcome!!!

by Casper - 2013-02-12 11:02:31

Hi Bobbi,

Please don't discount advice from some of the folks here at this club, as Ian stated, some of us have received better advice than some of their doctors.

There are many, many, people here that have very interesting backgrounds.

Best wishes with your new device and welcome!

Casper

You know you're wired when...

Your pacemaker interferes with your electronic scale.

Member Quotes

I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.