Still early but feeling great

Had dual chamber PM inserted on 5th August this year for bradycardia, syncope and sinus arrest.

For 2 months Before surgery HR was regularly at 40-44 BPM having been at 58-60 for years. Felt dizzy, light-headed and fatigued and had 2 significant blackouts.

Since surgery resting HR is 54-56 feel so much better and no dizzy spells at all. Bit confused as to how as believe I have Boston PM which should rapidly raise my HR to 160 if it drops below 50 but somehow seems to have done the trick - anyone else experience this?

Soreness wearing off, bit frustrating not being able to lift arm but hey I'm not complaining!

Steve

1 Comments

Rapidly raise HR to 160?

by donb - 2013-08-28 07:08:40

Hi Steve, I believe you as all of us PM patients that most of us have never been quite as aware of what our HR is doing when we check it at rest & see it increase as we get acive. Hopefully your HR is not increasing above your low setting of 50 unless you become quite active. I you find this happening too quickly & continues you may need to have your PM setttings changed.
As I'm quite familiar with my 6 pacemakers sin the past 21 years I find any quartz wall clock works great for checking your pulse especially in the 50-60 beats per minute. As all of mine have been factory set at a resting low rate of 60 & lets me feel a pulse for every tick of any quartz clock.
I also want to mention I experienced a rate of 50 or less with my 5th replacement which told me there's trouble. Medtronic tech checked with interogation & said PM is fine. As it turned out I had infection in my leads & my atrial lead was not sensing each beat causing confusion with that PM. There have been a few patients who have had problems with poor lead attachment to their heart wall muscle causing poor control of PM function.
Please don't get too concerned about this type of problem as it's rare although it's not unheard of either.
DonB

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