One year ago

Hard to believe it's been one year since I got my little buddy. Time does fly.

I tend to reminisce on anniversaries and have been thinking about what I was going through a year ago at age 58. Short version is that in a few weeks I went from being fairly active to my HR dropping into 40's and 50's, very SOB and legs in cement. Good news was I found out that my plumbing and heart were "excellent" (my cardio's words). Then had the PM installed. At that time I had no idea what had happened, virtually no knowledge of electrical heart issues. As an engineer my first question was what was the root cause. Did I do something? My Dr's response was "you didn't do anything, we really don't usually know what causes electrical problems, bad luck?" I tend not to just except answers like this so I started researching.

Fortunately I found this site and started learning from experienced and very helpful people, especially Donr. I even got a copy of my model's Clinician Manual, everything from installing it to programming and data analysis. Not for everyone I know but it made me feel much better to know how and what this thing in me was doing. Yes I get copies of my PM interrogation report every time. I also move the chair in front of the monitor so I can see what the tech is doing and look at the data with them. I always tell them that I will let them push the buttons LOL.

I started walking again a couple of weeks out and found that I needed a small tweak to my settings, raised my upper rate. Yes my PM was "working fine", it was doing exactly what it was programmed to do, but it needed a tweak to optimize it for me. Since then I've gotten back to my normal activities. A couple of months after install I even put in a 70 hour week helping to install a new exhibit in the art gallery I volunteer at. Was tiring but I did it. I'd say that by 6 months I was totally back to my normal and now I very rarely even think about it.

So overall it's been quite a year. Went from being very scared, to very sore from surgery and anxious, to healing and recovery, to back to normal. I learned so much too. I'm also very lucky that I only have an electrical problem, total AV block, and my little buddy was made to fix it.

Thanks to all on this site who helped me during this past year. I look forward to many many more.

Best in life to all of you, enjoy every day!
Kathy

3 Comments

Glad to know you're well

by Gotrhythm - 2014-06-13 01:06:42

So many posts are about things going wrong, it can be hard to believe sometimes that PMs do work, work GREAT, and can make a huge improvement in quality of life as well as extending it.

It took me a while to realize "Your PM is working fine" did not translate to "The settings on your PM are optimal for you."
I also had to learn, "There's nothing wrong with your heart" didn't mean that something about the way my heart beat wasn't causing my symptoms.

PMs do work. Amazingly dependably. And they can help you get back to living. But as Donr points out in another post today, there is nothing natural about having wires stuck in your heart, and nothing natural about having a machine suddenly controlling what has heretofore been controlled by innate biorhythms and your emotions.

A PM might take the surgeon only a couple of hours to insert, but your body, your mind, and your emotions take longer, sometimes much longer, to adapt.

Not knowing the cause is tough

by ma_ku - 2014-06-13 02:06:13

I am 17 months in with my first pacemaker. Not knowing the cause is very frustrating, but I have {just about} learnt to accept it.

Glad to hear you are back to living your life. For me, the psychological impact was far greater than the physical impact. Like yourself, I went throught the classic stages of grief but came out the other side. It takes time.

I hope they do learn more about the origin of these mysterious heart conditions. But "bad luck" will have to do for now.

I hope the technology moves on and the next replacement is the size of a grain of rice, charges itself from the body's heat/kinetic energy and is wireless. I don't want much do I? lol


Mark

Happy 1 yearPM anniversary!

by kmom - 2014-06-14 06:06:26

Glad you are feeling better and rarin to go! I feel the same way and it's been about 2 months since mine! These extra pieces of metal are incredible! and I'm so thankful I have one! I don't think I was as concerned as to why this happened but it was so frustrating to me that it took so long to finally figure out the problem. We knew something was wrong for a while but every time I had a 24 hr holter nothing showed up--it wasn't until I had my "episode" at work that my EP finally decided to hook me up with a 30day monitor and that's when they found the problem. they could actually see that my heart rate was dipping into the 30's 40's and 50's and during the day which they assumed at first was when I was taking a nap. unfortunately I didn't get that luxury even when I was feeling like crap. I was just so excited when dr. told me on a Friday I needed a pm and on Monday put it in! and have never looked back! They finally figured it out and there was a fix! YEAAHHH! Congrats once again! and get on with living!!!

You know you're wired when...

Jerry & The Pacemakers is your favorite band.

Member Quotes

I have a well tuned pacer. I hardly know I have it. I am 76 year old, hike and camp alone in the desert. I have more energy than I have had in a long time. The only problem is my wife wants to have a knob installed so she can turn the pacer down.