Tingly buzz: Paranoia?

Hi all ...

Seven weeks ago, I was implanted with a Medtronic cardiac pacemaker. The reason was that I had occasional long pauses between beats (7 seconds). Only a pacemaker, not the fancier stuff.

Three times now, I have had a tingly buzz from the area of my pacemaker. This mornings was the longest so far. Is this normal? Somehow, I had the impression that I should not be feeling the pacing.

I understand that I am paced less than 1%, so I have no idea whether this is from the pacemaker or not.

I will be flying to Spain tomorrow for the festival. I will not be riding my motorcycle, as I have not regained enough upper body strength.

I bought a cup that barely fits over the pacemaker to reduce the effect of impact from crowds. It is very crowded and people push into each other quite a lot. If it does not work, I will simply tape a mouse pad over it.

As before, I have purchased medical evacuation insurance. They claim that they will do hospital-to-hospital transfers in case of need.

6 Comments

Thank you

by Hairy - 2014-07-03 02:07:06

Thank you for the comments. It is VERY reassuring to know that it is not an unusual experience.

I went over to the hospital today: My cardiologist does not have an opinion, he said to talk to my EP. My EP said that if the device checks out, it is not an emergency that has to be worried about - Maybe later. I got a Medtronic tech to check me and he says that the device is OK and has not been doing a lot of work, only one electric anomaly in the last seven weeks, a type of anomaly that I have not heard before - I have to do some reading on it before worrying.

If I get hit, I get hit. If it hurts, it hurts. I have lived a pretty active life until now and stopping would not be good for my mental state. Right now, I expect to bruised a lot because I have been on a blood thinner. There are worse things.

I have a rare autoimmune disease that is slowly chewing up my heart. After replacing two valves and repairing a third, maybe having heart beat help is reasonable.

Tingly feeling

by Lurch - 2014-07-03 10:07:17

Not sure if you are talking about the incision site or within your heart.

I woke up one night with a weird tingly feeling in my heart. By the time I was awake enough to ready try to figure it out, it was over. During my first interrogation the Tech said she was going to test the unit and that I would feel my heart racing. Well, she did and that was the feeling I had woken up to!!

She explained that the unit does a self test once per week, usually in the middle of the night. It would have been real nice if they would have told me that before!!!! I was upset to say the least! She turned off that test since my home unit undates each night.

As for the incision/implantation site I got an itchy feeling for the first few weeks...

If it's the incision site

by KAG - 2014-07-03 11:07:43

then most likely it's the nerves healing.

As long as you don't have any swelling, redness, etc... which would indicate an infection which needs to be seen by a Dr ASAP.

Tingly

by Gotrhythm - 2014-07-03 12:07:50


Most of us have experienced something like what you're feeling. Whether it's "normal" I don't know, but it is common. At seven weeks the incision is considered "healed" but in fact healing on the inside will continue for a couple of months. As a wound heals and nerves regenerate, you can get all sorts of tingly, itchy, pinching, burning, stinging sensations in the region of the PM.

As for getting pushed and shoved, a blow that lands squarely on the pacemaker site will pain you quite a lot, but it won't hurt the PM one little bit.

PMs are incredibly tough, impervious to almost everything, and fantastically reliable. From what you say, it's your native heartbeat that was proving untrustworthy. Give your PM a gentle pat of appreciation, and go enjoy your trip, secure that your heart has a backup now, right there ready, able to step in within micro-seconds, should your native heartbeat falter.

Thanks again

by Hairy - 2014-07-04 04:07:51

Again, I very much appreciate knowing that others with a pacemaker sometimes sense when it goes off. I haven’t had enough experience yet to recognize what is normal, as from the retrieved data, it appears that it is not doing much. It appears to be doing something less than 1% of the time. My Medtronic’s tech claims that I should not feel anything when it does something. Maybe I should go up to Cleveland Clinic and get them to take a look at everything that has been done.

A side note: One of my replaced valves was my aortic valve. The median time to failure for a tissue replacement aortic valve with my autoimmune disease is four years. My heart surgeon tells me that when it needs replacement, the new catheter replacement technique will probably be FDA approved (currently approved in Canada); if so, the surgery will be less traumatic. He also tells me that heart valves can be replaced if someone has a pacemaker; and, that the new catheter procedure is OK with a pacemaker.

Hmmm

by NiceNiecey - 2014-07-04 12:07:35

I'm not sure about the tingly feeling but I definitely feel my PM when it's pacing, which is 85% in the right atria and 20% in the right ventricle.

You have a lot of heart issues related to your autoimmune disease. I'm glad you've got the PM, just for extra support should it be needed.

Keep us posted on what you find out.

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