Twins?

My twin brother had a pacemaker inserted in January this year, I had the same type inserted last week.

My condition had been undiagnosed for 15 years, very irregular blackouts every 6-8 months and sometimes longer. My brother started to develop much more severe symptoms for the first time this year. He was in hospital for a couple of weeks and diagnosed with Sick Sinus Syndrome. When this happened I went to a (new) consultant and he had me fitted with a Reveal cardiac monitor. Last week my heart stopped for about 20 seconds and I ended up being kept in hospital to have pacemaker fitted.

All has been fine since for both of us, completely pain free and no issues - fingers crossed it stays that way.

Any other twins out there with pacemakers?!

4 Comments

Brotherly love

by DonF - 2013-07-05 07:07:24

Yes, never liked being referred to as "the twins", so thanks for that! As for which is the elder, that's another bugbear of mine! The way I see it, as we are identical twins, we are identical age - but I was always considered the youngest in the family just because I've been exposed to the outside world for 15 mins less than my brother....

So yes, we do look very similar, when I look back at photos when we were small I cannot tell us apart. I'll let others be the judge of who is the best looking! I've got more scars than him as I also had Reveal implant.

It was good to have someone close who'd been through the same thing (a bit like having this web site!). However, he only told me afterwards (thanks bruv) that he felt like he had been drain-rodded during the procedure which is exactly how I felt! It was not so much painful as intense as the wires were put in place and my heart stopped at this point and was given a quick atropine injection. Perhaps that was best not to know!

I hadn't seen this forum before my op so wasn't aware of all the detailed settings that can be fiddled with. I can't wait to get some more info at my checkup and can start comparing settings with everyone else and more importantly my brother: "Don't you think 0.1% pacing is a bit lame! :-) "

I am a twin.

by Pookie - 2013-07-08 03:07:37

Hi, I'm Pookie.

I am 22 younger than my twin. Didn't want to come out into this world so I turned around and ended up being born breach.

On a more serious note: when I was diagnosed with Left Ventricle Noncompaction in 2004 but received my Medtronic Pacemaker for heart block - my twin sister was (by this time) living in the United States (and still does) and I am in Canada....she went for a slew of heart tests and she is clean as a whistle.

However, when I first heard I had to have a pacemaker I immediately thought of my grandfather - mother's side - as he too had one and it was huge; this would have been in the late 70's.

I went thru a VERY difficult time for the first 5.5 years and to make an extremely long story short: I was months away from having an ablation when one of the PM Techs decided to change ONE little setting to OFF, and I then felt soooooooooooooo much better.

Settings are the key (in my opinion) and a lot of the time it takes oodles of visits to the Pacemaker Clinic for them to make adjustments - my advise is to only allow them to make one adjustment per visit cuz that way if something works or doesn't how would one know if several settings were adjusted...clear as mud, eh?

Well I wish you the best and glad you found this wonderful group.

Take care,
Pookie

All Different

by DonF - 2013-07-08 09:07:19

Yes, we both have a boy and a girl around the same ages but thankfully all look different!

Twin

by Rburroughs - 2013-07-09 02:07:09

I am an identical mirror image twin....just had my PM for 4 months I guess now. I have SSS and my sister is so worried that she will have the same issue. She says if she does she is going to blame me. Lol. So far she is fine so we will have to wait and see.

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