Voltage

I had a St Jude PM put in Feb 5, 2014. I have seen the PM nurse a couple of times since then. I am scheduled to see the nurse on May 30th. She told me that at that time she would lower the voltage on my PM. She said the reason for this is to extend the battery life. She said at the current voltage the battery would only last 4 1/2 years. My question is how will this affect me? They set my heart rate at 70 bpm when I left the hospital. When I had my first check up the nurse told me I was pacing 80% of the time. I have been feeling quite good, and I don't want to mess that up. Any thoughts?
Thanks Chase

2 Comments

Changed voltage...

by donr - 2014-03-22 10:03:12

....Should have no effect on anything as far as how the PM/heart combo functions.

The voltage she lowered was the voltage applied to the leads to make the heart contract. It is not unusual at all for them to lower it at this point.

Consider what is happening: They implanted the leads & they were stuck in the walls of your heart like a harpoon in Moby Dick's side. Nice, fresh wounds. Slowly, scar tissue builds up around the harpoon tips to hold them firmly captured & held permanently in place.

Now every night while you are peacefully sleeping the sleep of Capt Ahab in the deep who is still entangled in the lines to his harpoons in Moby, your PM does a test of the electrical resistance of the leads - which includes the scar tissue. The nurse most probably looked at the resistance reported by the PM in its download of data & noticed that it has been reduced & did NOT need as high a voltage to make the heart contract as when first implanted. Part of the nightly test MAY be a determination of how much voltage it takes to make the heart function - OR the nurse may have run the test while you were on the computer.

GENERALLY, they throw in a safety factor of TWO above the required voltage.

You did not need as much voltage to make your heart function, so she reduced it.

The higher the voltage required, the less the battery life.

If you are normal, it will have zero effect on how things function.

Donr

Was watching

by Theknotguy - 2014-03-22 11:03:34

Was watching my PM tech when she lowered the voltage. Felt nothing. No change.

As Donr indicated they reduce voltage to extend battery life. No big deal.

You can get a report on your PM. It will show what the new voltage settings happen to be.

The only thing I've noticed is I have less "pounding" from my heart beat at night. Kinda nice as I sleep better.

At the moment I'm supposed to get 9 1/2 years from the current battery in the PM. I hope technology will change so much they'll have to remove my current PM and put in a better one before then.

Don't worry about the battery. Go out and enjoy life!

Theknotguy

You know you're wired when...

You have a shocking personality.

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