Out of breath/fatigue 3 months post pm implant

Hello All,
My PM is now 3 months old and I am making progress but this last week, my first real week of continuous activity has left me out of breath with severe fatigue. Here is my activity: 11/1/13 flew from NJ to Ca to visit my grand dtr. Landed at LAX 3 hours after the shooting in the airport. LAX evacuated and had to walk 2.5 miles pushing150 pounds of luggage on a airport cart. (that was exhausting). 11/2, 11/3, 11/4 rested, 11/5 played my 1st round of golf (18 holes) and felt pretty good, 11/6 spent entire day with grand dtr (3 years old) took her to the beach, went to a fun park, went out to dinner and was out of breath with severe fatigue, 11/7 played another round of gold but could only complete 5 holes and then had severe shortness of breath and fatigue. It took me all of 11/8, 11/9 and 11/10 (today) to recover to being mildly out of breath with moderate fatigue. Flying back to east cost overnight. Am I expecting to much to soon? I probably am but it is very disappointing not be able to live my life as I had done before. What do you think? I need your help. Many thanks,
HK

4 Comments

If the SOB continues

by KAG - 2013-11-11 11:11:42

I'd check with my cardio folks, especially the PM techs and go over you PM settings with them. You may need to get a tweak to your PM. Do you know what your PM modes and settings are? Upper/lower rates?

I had SOB when I did more exertion and the PM techs upped my UTR and I've been fine.

Hi HK

by jeanlancour - 2013-11-11 12:11:34

Wow! The days you were active it looks like you pushed to the max, easy to see that you would be exhausted. I think you need to pace yourself a bit better, after all in July you were in a major chrash and had surgery. You have posted about being short of breath and fatigue, had that cleared up before the trip? If not, you were expecting to much from yourself. It is very seldom that our new normal is our old self, it is up to us to make the best of what we have. You are lucky to have a lot, bet that 3 year old granddaughter is a ton of joy. Best wishes Jean

SOB

by HK - 2013-11-12 07:11:55

Thanks jeanlancour and KAG I very much appreciate your comments. I am probably expecting to much to soon but the last thing my cardiologist said to me was go out and do what I want. However, my expectations and what is real are different. I do think I will be able to do more but probably have to modify how much I can do at once.

KAG my PM is set from 50 160. The 160 was set a month after the PM was implanted. The medtronic's tech did that because I was weak and debilitated and the original setting for the upper end was 130 and that was being reached often. The more I exercise and try to live my life as it was before Mr PM, the more I am convived I need some tweeks. I am seeing my Cardio in Jan and I will talk more with him about my experiences.

You guys are great. Thank you for being here.

My best to you all,
HK

Keep after it

by KAG - 2013-11-13 12:11:42

Sometimes it can take a while to get the PM tweaked to optimal for you. Plus the techs usually will only make one tweak at a time so they can tell if it helps or not. If to many adjustments are made at one time you can't tell which one helped or maybe made it worse.

So hang in there, sounds like you have a good handle on it.
Kathy

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You need to be re-booted each morning.

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