New member of the Club

Hi,
Just had my first pacemaker fitted a week ago, and found this website today. I felt I was a bit young (at 51) to be needing a pm, but reading this site has shown me I am far from the youngest!

I was not looking forward to the operation- the very idea of being operated on under local anaesthetic - but it went alright on the day.
I'm an electronics engineer and have been looking into the details of my device (Medtronics A3DR01). It looks to be one of the latest designs, with compatibility with MRI scans. Fascinating technology!
Just hope the battery use is as low as my consultant expects, so I won't need a replacement op for a long time.

5 Comments

Right up your alley

by Theknotguy - 2014-01-30 03:01:55

The PM should be right up your alley as an EE guy. All sorts of neat stuff. Anyway....

Remember you've got 4-6 weeks before you can lift your elbow above the shoulder on the PM side. You need to keep the arm moving but also need to stay within the restrictions. Can't lift anything heavier than 5 pounds. Can lift a full milk jug in an emergency, etc. Keeping the arm moving with light exercise will keep it from going stiff.

For me they kept the voltage high on PM for the first 90 days until the heart settled in to the new routine. Then dropped the voltage after 90 days. They keep the voltage above the minimum threshold to kick the heart but at a lower voltage than when you first got it. You don't notice the change.

Look over this forum. We get a lot of warnings about the PM around electrical, microwave, RF, EMF, etc. Most of it is just CYA on the manufacturer's part in case that one-in-a-million thing happens. So you might be able to chime in with what the threshold RF, EMF, would be and to what we are exposed.

For grins and giggles you might be able to find the posting where the lady said her PM shut off her washer. That was a good one. Amazing what people will think when they don't know about electricity. Another posting to find is the guy who works in a factory around sintering furnaces. Great stuff. Then either donR or donB put on a posting showing the Mars flight. Some more good stuff. Should get your heart going pitty-pat. Then find my posting on spark plugs. It mentions the things we guys should avoid so our leads don't get corroded.

Welcome to the club. Hopefully you'll have an all positive experience and start to feel better. Life gets better!

Theknotguy

Useful advice

by bill249017 - 2014-01-30 05:01:48

Thanks for those points. I'll have to search out the posts you describe.

I do work with Avionics equipment, and in particular radars, which involve high voltages and electric fields. One thing I'm concerned over is whether I am going to have to stay away from the radars when they're being tested. I'm going to have to investigate what threat these might have with my pacemaker. I was a little reassured that the model I have is compatible with MRI scanners- anybody know whether I am right to think they are more robust to electromagnetic effects?

Same make & model!

by JerryG - 2014-01-31 09:01:09

I have the same make & model PM implanted 2013-09. I am an accountant by profession but as I live on my game farm in the South African bush a long way from most things, I am pretty good at DIY. I use an arc welder, use two-way radios a lot, have 22kv power lines overhead when I read my electricity meters and a 10kv game fence around my camp which I have inadvertently touched on occasion (BIG ouch!), I have had absolutely no problems with my PM. I know radar puts out much more energy than the radios I use (amateur hf, vhf, uhf; commercial vhf) so I am unable to comment on standing too close to a transmitting radar antenna. However, I do believe a lot of the warnings the PM manufacturers put out are purely CYA.

I feel at least 30 years younger than my chronological 66 years since implant and am fitter than I have been in 30 years! I work out on a treadmill every day and the rate response function of my A3DR01 works great for me after some setting tweaking the beginning of November. (I have sick sinus syndrome and need the RR for exercise).

Welcome to the club and I hope my new best friend will become yours too.

JerryG

Welcome

by KAG - 2014-01-31 11:01:09

to the club. As an engineer you may want to check out the Medtronics site and get a copy of the Clinician Manual. It has everything from installing, to settings and programming, to reading the data in it.

I'm also an engineer, EE by degree but worked in Systems engineering for 24 years. The PM techs I see still are not used to me moving the chair in front of the interrogation monitor so I can look at the data, but they tolerate it OK. I tell them I just want to watch and will let them run the computer.

I worked with BAe and Ferranti a quite a bit in the UK back in the 90's.

You've found a great site to find out anything about your PM. People of all ages, conditions and experiences.

Take care and get back to your normal activities as soon as possible.

Kathy

Stay away from ...

by donr - 2014-02-01 10:02:41

...the antenna's aperature!

You did not say what KIND of airborne radars. Phased array or reflective dish type w/ central feed? What Freq band? X. K. mmW?

I, likewise am an EE, but my bag was EM theory, NOT the circuits. But - A little knowledge & comfort w/ all such devices in the Air Defense business having a bunch of techs working for me..

1) Look on the black boxes as a BIG kitchen microwave oven. That part has to be shielded to prevent escape of any stray RF radiation & stray lower freq EM energy. Face it - the radar has to be designed the same way, probably better to prevent interference w/ nearby RF using devices. That takes care of the high power end of the system. It of necessity has to handle BIG voltages & high strength fields inside the box. Go back to the data processing area - most likely in 2014 digital processing - no worse than a desktop computer for stray fields.

The real problem w/ these components is the proclivity of engineers & techs to operate the system w/ the shielding panels OFF so they can get easy access to the guts while it is operating.

2) The RF generating section Should likewise be shielded pretty well. (Think cooking cavity of the microwave oven.) To prevent RFI w/ other systems & because if it isn't, you lose efficiency. You did not say whether it is reflecting dish stuff or phased array type. either way, you do not want to stand in the aperature of the antenna while it is radiating. Actually, NO ONE wants to stand there! Why? Usually it's the eyeballs that are endangered with potential for being literally fried like a egg. The liquid inside an eyeball is similar to the white of an egg & susceptible to the same threats.

The actuality of the shielding of the guts of your PM is that it is contained in a hermetically sealed Ti case & the RF energy will not penetrate it very far. The skin depth of Ti is about the same as steel, Al or most other metals - so the RF will be reflected off that part. The leads are encased in a stainless steel braided grounded (Earthed) shield, (Think Coax cable) protecting the central conductor from stray RFI.

Practically speaking, I'd say that you can no longer perform the marginally stupid things that all folks associated w/ such equipment routinely do. BTDT & survived in spite of it. You must now heed the prescribed safety warnings that come w/ the equipment, but are generally ignored.

I know it's not much, but I have sat in front of my desktop box w/ the shielding side off of it for years at a distance of about two feet. Power supply has the normal warnings on it, but it has not yet affected me (At least my psychiatrist doesn't think so) or my PM (my cardio never sees any anomalies in its downloads.) I have been around our son's 1 KW microwave oven operating in the X band when it had its side off & it was cooking up a storm w/o ill effect. I have done some open cased maintenance on our own oven & cheated on the safety interlocks w/o ill effect.

My only data point I can state is that once, about 2 weeks post-op I passed my Pm w/i 6 inches of the cable connected to my water hater in the shop. 240 Volts, 30 Amps, 60 Hz. put my PM into TEST mode , scared the crap out of me & I almost fell off an 8 ft stepladder. Now that's an industrial sized field - not one found in electronics.

There is a member, Manaman (Cecil) who has a lot of experience in industrial settings. IIRC, he has only had problems at those kind of voltages & amps. He may have experience w/ CNC control systems. which have some big digital control systems.

I think that our two other engineers who muck around in electronic stuff have said it - the safety warnings are written by lawyers to protect against unwary, unfamiliar non- electronics savvy people. Those who are comfy around such equipment are another colored horse - they know where to go & how close they can get to radiating equipment.

Just look at your PM as another avionics black box w/ thew same sensitivities to RFI as what you work on & you will be OK.

One little bit of advice that is NOT CYA - stay away from magnetron magnets - if they still use them. They can be a real inconvenience if too close to a PM. Flips it into test mode till you get away from its field.

To Bill in the land that gave birth to the magnetron, I send a hearty welcome aboard.

Don

You know you're wired when...

Muggers want your ICD, not your wallet.

Member Quotes

My eight year old son had a pacemaker since he was 6 months old. He does very well, plays soccer, baseball, and rides his bike. I am so glad he is not ashamed of his pacemaker. He will proudly show his "battery" to anyone.