Pacemaker Club: CRT/ICD

CRT/ICD

by DMJ
2013-10-07 02:10:12
ICDs
1836 views
4 comments

I have had my new pacemaker for cardiac resychronization therapy for one year now. I haven't felt a lot of difference. I was waiting a year before I went through the expense of echo to see if my ejection fraction has gone up from 25%. Has anyone out there had this therapy and have you felt better?

4 Comments

why wait?

by Tracey_E - 2013-10-07 04:10:24

Sometimes they have to adjust the settings before we feel better so a year seems like a long time to wait for follow up.

If you do a search of the past posts, this comes up all the time. Some get better results than others, but many see an increase in EF.

Yes

by Grateful Heart - 2013-10-07 05:10:17

There can be improvement in your EF. It depends why you needed it....any other heart issues.

My EF went from 24% to 50% and now 55% at last echo about 6 months ago. I have my ICD almost 5 years now.

Let us know how your appointment goes and good luck.

Grateful Heart

co-pay

by DMJ - 2013-10-07 07:10:47

My insurance co pays are crazy, I've had two pacemakers in 3 years and out of pocket for that alone was 6,000. I will get SSI disability heath insurance in a year and then can do all these test they request. I did have some adjustments done on my settings a couple of months ago which helped. Since my damage was caused by my first pacemaker my doctor doesn't really understand what all the problems are! Since I have a complete block as well as chronic systolic heart failure /dilated cardiomyopathy and nonobstructive coronary artery disease. If they can't fix it why do the tests? I just accept I should take it day by day.

CRT-P

by Many Blessings - 2013-10-08 12:10:18

I have a CRT-P with an AV Node ablation. I've had it for about 1 1/2 years. My EF did go up initially, but has come back down. My next echo is in a couple of months, so it will be interesting to see where it's at then.

As far as feeling a difference, things have improved in that I haven't had to go to the hospital for heart failure symptoms (I was in there a weekend or two a month prior). My heart rate is down, my color is normal (I was gray prior), and my fingernails and hair started growing again!

Appearance wise, things are better, but I still just don't feel that great all of the time, and some of the new symptoms are hard for me to accept. Some are caused from the procedure, settings, and one of the leads being in a "bad" place, and others are caused from my underlying heart problems that can't be fixed by the CRT-P. It's hard to say what's causing what. But, like Angry Sparrow said in her post, I'm alive! :)

Good luck in feeling better! I wish you the best!