A really silly question

Hello fellow participants,
This site has answered so many questions that I thought I would put another one out there for comment.
I have had had my pacemaker in for 8 weeks and feel great. Life is really good and at times I hardly know ' my friend' is there....until yesterday.
We took a flight from Tasmania to Perth in Australia via Melbourne. The trip from Melbourne was just over 4 hours. When the plane had landed and was on its way to the terminal the passengers were told the could turn on their mobile phones and could turn off flight mode.
Well as you can imagine then, over 300 people then reached into their pockets, bags whatever and on went all these phones whilst waiting for the doors to open.
What bothered me was at that moment my pacemaker which I don't feel working started jumping around, especially mid chest, which is the ventricular lead.
It reminded me of my first pacemaker check when the tech did the checkers and caused the same feeling.
The ventricular leads works at less than 1%, whereas the atrial is functioning at 85%.
At first I thought I was imagining things but it really bothered me and I realised I was not imagining it. It only settled down when I finally was able to disembark.
So was sitting in a metal tube with a whole lot of phones being switched on within a confined space the cause ?
I promise I am not a hypochondriac and my life has turned around for the better since I got my pacemaker.
Thanks
j00ney

2 Comments

Yes , interesting !

by IAN MC - 2014-03-16 08:03:26

You certainly don't sounds as though you are either hypochondriac or barking mad .

Whilst it could be a co-incidence I'm sure that you weren't imagining it !

I am flying this week so I will do a clinical trial of 1 and measure my heart rate at that moment in time when everybody whips out their mobiles and will report back !

Before getting a PM , I found that whenever I entered certain large stores I had episodes of bradycardia and a pre-syncope feeling . My GP gave me one of his patronising looks when I told him . It was only when I showed him my HR data that he reluctantly agreed that I was on to something !

Now that I have a PM those same stores still send my HR down but now I don't worry about it.

Ian

You are not crazy.

by Squad12 - 2014-03-16 11:03:02

Do you have an MRI compatible PM? I haven't flown yet but I pickup noise in different places. You have to realize we are around noise all of the time. I had our cordless phone trigger mine. I was at Costco one day and started getting light headed while at the return counter. I looked up and they had an electric heater going. I backed away but it took a little while for my heart to settle down.
My Dr. thinks I am crazy because these episodes do not show up when they read the PM. I have a friend in the cardiac field and he said the PM's do not record those episodes unless they trigger the PM.
I had an episode similar to Ian's the other day. I walked into Lowe's when the automatic door was opening and I could feel my heart rate drop.
Doctors are skilled but they do not know everything about pacemakers and they do not understand the presence of EF, EMF or RF that can have an effect on pacemakers.
I spent the last 27 years in the electronics industry and I am familiar with electrical fields.

You know you're wired when...

You play MP3 files on your pacer.

Member Quotes

I have had my pacer since 2005. At first it ruled my life. It took some time to calm down and make the mental adjustment. I had trouble sleeping and I worried a lot about pulling wires. Now I just live my life as I wish.