Fatigue

Hi,
I just joined this club and had a pacemaker for the first time about a month ago. Some postings I read implied that a change in the low and upper heart-beat settings can help eliminate fatigue. My settings are 55 - 130 bpm and should cover most essential activities. Why do I still feel tired and anxious? It could be due to depression from the surgery? I would like to contact with persons with similar problems and learn to cope or resolve the problems.

1 Comments

healing

by Tracey_E - 2013-11-17 08:11:00

A month post-op isn't very long. I still napped a lot at that point.

If you fill in the details on your bio, it can help us answer your questions better. Why you have the pm and what medications you are on, how old you are and overall health, changing settings may or may not help. How long you were in need of the pm before getting it also affects how quickly you bounced back. If your body was struggling for years to get by on a lower heart rate, it will take some time to get used to pacing and having the heart beat in sync. There is a lot more to feeling good than just upper and lower limits.

Sometimes changing settings is all it takes. In my case, 130 wasn't adequate. When I work out, my atrial rate gets up to 150's or more, so my upper limit was changed to 175. Now, I can workout, so for me changing the upper limit gave me more energy. If your resting rate is too low and you are depending on the pm to keep you from going lower, it may take a few tries to find your ideal lower limit. 55 is a good starting point, but it may or may not be what works best for you.

Again, I'm just throwing out a list of things that can possibly make you tired. Without knowing anything about you, it's just wild guesses.

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Member Quotes

The pacer systems are really very reliable. The main problem is the incompetent programming of them. If yours is working well for you, get on with life and enjoy it. You probably are more at risk of problems with a valve job than the pacer.