Getting pacemaker in the morning

Hi so glad to find you. I am in the hospital recovering from about of Afib. My pulse has been 30 at rest and so they are putting in the unit in the morning The doc said its sick sinus syndrome. During my conversion 12 hous later my heart stopped for 8 seconds. I never want that to happen again. My doc said I have to be on coumadin for the rest ofmy life and solatol which could be responsible for the slow pulse. I am really scared

3 Comments

Best Wishes to you

by bmccasland - 2014-03-16 10:03:25

Best wishes and hope everything goes fine for you. There is really nothing to the procedure (mine anyways), I was awake the whole time and even talked football with the surgery team during the procedure. My HR use to drop in the 20's during my sleep and stayed at 31 most of the time during the day. Let us know how you feel during post recovery......

afib and life

by Theknotguy - 2014-03-16 11:03:17

You can live very well with afib. Fortunately with the PM it will prevent the heart from arbitrarily stopping. So you can rest assured you won't have to go through the heart stopping again.

While afib can be life threatening, between the blood thinner and the PM you won't need to worry about having a stroke.

Some pacemakers have afib settings. Mine is a Medtronics and it has APP (Atrial Preference Pacing). It's a setting that can mitigate afib sessions. There are differences of opinion about afib settings in PM's so your doctor may not feel the same way as mine.

I'm on Eliquis instead of Coumadin. You can reverse the effects of Coumadin very quickly by taking vitamin K. That may be the reason why your doctor chose that for you. Some people have problems with Coumadin - I had a lot of problems - mostly excess bleeding. Other people have no side effects with Coumadin. Other than some bleeding where I can't get a small cut to stop, I have no side effects with Eliquis. However you can't quickly reverse the bleeding effects of Eliquis.

Either way, with the PM you'll need to be on blood thinners. However I've been on blood thinners for years and have been able to lead a fairly active life.

If your PM has afib settings your doctor may not turn them on at first. The doctors want to see how your heart responds first before turning on various settings. Don't get upset, they just have to see how your heart responds to the PM before changing things.

The doctors use various drugs to slow down your heart. As your heart beats faster it can go into afib. Slowing down the heart reduces the occurrences of afib. That's why they're giving you Sotalol.

To reduce afib doctors use rhythm control and rate control. Rhythm control didn't work for me so I don't know that much about it.

Rate control is where they keep the speed of the heart down to a slow rate. In my case they're using Cardizem and Metoprolol. Prior to the PM they had to be concerned about giving me too much Metoprolol and having my heart slow down to where it wouldn't keep me alive. Post PM, they can give me higher doses of Metoprolol and use the PM to keep my heart beating.

I still get afib sessions and may need ablation at a future date. Since they've turned on APP my afib sessions are fewer and not as intense. Between the medication and the PM it may push off me needing an ablation for quite some time. We'll see.

I can still get afib sessions where the heart starts beating faster and faster. During one afib session my heart rate went up to over 140 bpm. I had to go to the ER and have IV drugs to slow down my heart. After this speed up afib session I talked with my doctor and I have medications to take to slow down my heart. I know how much extra medication to take and when to head for the ER.

Other than the occasional afib session, I lead a pretty normal life. The afib doesn't slow me down that much.

We have people on this forum with pacemakers who Skydive, scuba dive, weight lift, swim, and train for marathons. The pacemaker doesn't slow them down nor keep them from leading a fairly normal life.

Right now you should be feeling very good about the future. They'll be able to keep your heart from stopping, be able to mostly control your afib, and you won't have to worry about your heart stopping. Even with the PM you can lead a pretty normal life. Overall your future is looking brighter.

If you want more details you can contact me via the private message area of this forum.

Hang in there. Life does get better.

Theknotguy

Thank You

by marnid - 2014-03-17 12:03:48

Thank you so much for answering me, Ifeel better . I am sure this site will be wonderful help. I will post as soon as I can after tomorrow.

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