Lucky me

• by Windjammer
• 2013-08-08 04:08:05
• General Posting
• 1357 views
• 6 comments

Hi everyone. I'm a 63 year old fit and slim male new to the Club. On the morning of June 21st I collapsed in the shower at our North Wales beach house, then again outside whilst loading the car prior to a 3hr drive home. Quick visit to local doc who told me my BP was very low at 90/60 and to delay drive home for a short while plus go and rehydrate and lie down. Collapsed again back at the house then twice more by which time my wife had called 999. Paramedic arrived in 3 mins and detected ectopic heart beat. She called for ambulance. Collapsed twice more, ambulance monitor recording my heart stopping for 20 secs on one occasion. Helicopter was there in minutes and 10 mins later I was landed at Bangor hospital where I had the eighth and final 'episode' on the way to the ward. Sick Sinus Syndrome diagnosed and temporary pacemaker fitted immediately.
After each episode my heart had self-started thank goodness but there was no question I was going to leave hospital without a PM. Had a dual lead Boston Scientific fitted which was initially set to 50 bpm. For the first 5 weeks I often experienced sessions of heart pounding. At the first check up 10 days ago it was discovered that my Atrium was requiring 0% pacing whilst the Ventricle was pacing 46%. PM was therefore re-set to 60 bpm to encourage my heart to work more rather than be helped too much by the PM. An adjustment was also made to the signal time lapse between top and bottom. Reassuringly, the sinus node has not failed once since that day.
This is the bit I can't get my head around. If I was getting high pacing activity when I was set at 50 bpm why should this now reduce when it's re-set to 60? I would have thought the opposite would have been the case. I'd be grateful for enlightenment!! Oh yes, nearly forgot. I was wired backwards and had to be re-connected correctly the following day!
Good to be alive (after a close shave) and to be part of this club. Rick