Symptoms/Cardiac or what

My first time on. Seems like some good folks who care about other people having problems that sometimes doctors do not understand. Got a heart attack in August 2012 and three stents a few months later. Just got my pacemaker on October 2012. Have had three monitoring sessions to check on my heart rate and the results show that my heart had been skipping for up to 12 seconds. Last week I had my pace maker adjusted from 50 beats per minute to 55 beats per minute because my heart was still skipping , I thought the pace maker was supposed to stop the beats. Anyway, I am having this problem I call a "shroud" The symptoms are almost like when you get a heart attack, that feeling that starts on your chest and radiates down your arms, this feeling also is on my feet, have to loosen my shoestrings because my feet seem to swell. During this time my heart rate and blood pressure are usually within normal limits. These symptoms eventually effect my whole body, taking away any stamina I have and lasting from 8 to 16 hours. I am thinking that this happens because my heart is still skipping but that is just a guess. These symptoms leave me with a fuzzy head and weak. It does not affect my breathing. I take Nitro tablets when this happens and it helps some as it takes the edge off. Am writing to see if anyone else has such a shroud and whether you have found out what may be causing it or whether there is way to resolve this problem. I have three good cardiologists who are stumped. I am 62 years old and still am active unless this shroud decides to come visiting, it visits me about once per week. I have been told that there is a possibility that this issue is not cardiac and some have suggested that the stents may be causing this problem. I am usually in good health and try to exercise and stay active. Any information would be helpful. If anyone else has had this problem or has some ideas what it may be or how you resolved this issue I would appreciate hearing from you. Electro

2 Comments

Welcome to the Pacemaker Club

by NiceNiecey - 2014-03-24 10:03:32

I've never had a heart attack or "the shroud" :--) but I think I understand what you're saying.

I will address your comment about your heart skipping for up to 12 seconds. My own PM is set too fire after I skip just ONE BEAT. If I skip a beat, the PM kicks in. I have no idea why yours wouldn't fire the same way but I'm only 12 weeks into this new adventure. Please ask your doctors what's up with that?

I also hope they're going to perform some additional tests on you. It's my understanding that stents can collapse. I suspect they'll do some additional testing to help you figure it out. If not, request it. I'm so surprised that I've had to ASK THEM for so many things related to pacing, testing, etc.

All the best.
Niecey

pauses?

by Tracey_E - 2014-03-25 12:03:27

I'm not sure what you mean by skipping, is it pausing for that long?? Because a pm should prevent that. If it's set to a minimum of 60 beats per minute, that's one beat per second, so it should never let you go a second without a beat. Perhaps it's runs of pvc's or afib, something like that? If our hearts act up and go fast or do little partial beats, the pm can only watch. Have they checked your ejection fraction lately? Swelling usually indicates the heart isn't beating efficiently. The pm can send out the message to beat, but the heart has to respond by contracting. How strongly it contracts is measured by EF. I would get it checked out, don't assume it's the pm. Something else is going on.

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