First checkup yesterday. Awful today.

Hi. I had my first checkup and meeting with cardioiligist yesterday. The technician told me that the pacemaker (duel chamber Medtronic) is doing it's job as it was activated 48% of the time.
The cardioligist decided to change the setting from 60 to 50, although the technician had said all was great and if it is not broken, don't fix it..
Today, I awoke with a terrible headache and pressure in my head, which I have not had since pacemeker was fitted eight weeks ago. It is now 6.15 pm and I have not picked up all day. I checked my pulse three times over the day and it was 54, then 51 and now 54. The technician did tell me to call her if I was uncomfortable with the new setting and she would set it back to 60.
Should I give it longer as I could be just having a bad day or should I call the technician.

A very miserable Brend.

6 Comments

Hi Brend

by IAN MC - 2013-08-29 02:08:11

Sorry you are miserable , If it were me :-

-- I would have wanted to know why the lower setting was changed from 60 to 50; is it purely to extend battery life ?

-- What was your natural resting HR before you had a PM ? If , for example, your natural resting rate was 70 bpm then a drop to 50 could be pushing it too far

-- I find it surprising that the drop would affect you so much but anything is possible . If you get your HR up above 60 ( by exercising ) do you feel better ?

-- there is only one way to find out if the setting change is causing the problem, do as the technician suggests and get it put back to 60 and see what happens

Best of luck

Ian

Exercise

by Brend - 2013-08-29 06:08:57

I decide to try an experiment after reading Ian's message. I did ten minutes of exercises and checked my pulse before and after. It was 52 before exercise and 74 after. The pressure in my head had eased but I still had a headache. After an hour I again checked and it was 53 and pressure was back in my head. I then went for a 45 minute walk and had no headache or pressure. Pulse was 68. I cannot keep doing exercise to keep the rate up.
I don't know what to do.
Brend

Exercise

by Roys - 2013-08-29 07:08:34

Hi Brend
I don't think your Rate Response is switched on, after exercise your HR should be more than 74. My HR is set at 60 -130 and just walking around the house it is in the high 80's and walking up a hill is 110. Get it checked out.
Cheers Roy

call them back

by Tracey_E - 2013-08-29 09:08:09

Don't suffer, call and ask them to put it back where it was! It's great to try to squeeze more battery life, but not at the cost of not feeling good.

74 doesn't seem like much if you are exercising. I would also ask about rate response settings. They can adjust the sensitivity so it takes your rate up more on activity. They may want to wait on that, though, they prefer to make one change at a time so if it doesn't work it's easy to know what to change back.

More info would help

by KAG - 2013-08-30 11:08:31

You didn't say why you have the PM. Also have you gotten a copy of your PM interrogation report? If not you should get one. It will tell us what your PM mode and basic settings are.

If you have AV block and your sinus node is OK then your sinus node sets the HR and your PM paces at that rate. No lower than your low setting and no higher than the upper tracking rate.

If you have sinus node problems then the PM sets the pace and usually there is a Rate Response mode that is turned On. The PM senses when you need a higher HR and paces accordingly.

In either case there are adjustments that can be made to tune the PM to your needs.

So get the PM report and see what the mode and settings are. If you need help understanding them just ask.

Kathy

definitely go back!

by debster01 - 2013-08-31 10:08:55

My mom has a Medtronic pacemaker/defibrilator. She is super sensitive to the settings..absolutely have them put you back where it was. My mom is always anxious at device checks-so afraid they are going to jack with her settings..

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Sometimes a device must be tuned a few times before it is right. My cardiologist said it is like fine tuning a car.