Understanding and compassion for SLC

• by WillieG
• 2015-03-06 12:03:18
• General Posting
• 962 views
• 2 comments

With the ablation that did not go well and resulted in a PM. I sympathize with you as I am stuck with a 3 inch piece of metal in my chest that is sitting idle but for a different reason. I had exercise induced heart block while biking up steep hills last Spring. During the EP study with "physiological atrial pacing", they determined that my block was located in the Bundle of His, thus Mobitz II requiring a PM. Two weeks later, while biking uphill, I continued to have the same block. By then I had a monitor and could watch my HR cut in half from say 150 down to 75 for about 30 seconds. I still felt fine and was able to continue up the hill without any ill effects. After 2 PM adjustments when I went for the 6 wk voltage turn down, my interrogation report showed that I had 69% ventricular pacing. I learned from this site that excessive ventricular pacing can possibly result in Afib and a reduced ejection fraction. When my doctor did not respond to this issue, I went to the Cleve Clinic and they readjusted my settings. With the new settings, I did not pace when I had a block and resulted in tons of oversensing (648,000 PACs in 3 months). I also had 99 ATRs ( which are atrial tacky responses) with mode switches where the PM senses that your atrium is beating too fast and switches from DDD to DDI. This occurred at rates of 130 which is not high for exercise so I have no idea of why this happened. I also did not understand my Dx of bradycardia as I have never seen a HR reading under 70. My HR was usu 110 - 115 while walking thru the house. My EP ordered a 48 Holter study in Dec., which showed my average HR is 92. I asked that my PM be turned off, which they did with the ventricle channel set to pace if my HR goes below 30, which is most unlikely for me. So I have an incorrect diagnosis and a PM that has never been set to work properly. And interestingly, I have not had any heart block for 2 months. My first appointment with my EP since the surgery is March 18 and I have plenty of questions for him. Prior to the PM surgery, he told me that most people have Mobitz I type blocks and only a small percentage would be Mobitz II needing a PM. So, like you, I was rather shocked to wake up from the EP study with a PM. I was not prepared for the arm pain nor given any painkillers. My bra also rubs the area and it itches fairly often even 9 months later. I would not have a problem with these minor irritations if I felt the PM was needed. Logically to me, Mobitz II occurring during exercise induced Heart Block does not seem to be the same disease as in patients who faint while sitting on the couch. My EP has only had 5 patients with exercise induced HB and I can't find research about if this indeed will progress. Yet, I only found this out 6 months after my PM. I was never asked my opinion as to whether I wanted a PM nor were any of the restrictions afterwards discussed prior to the surgery.

The attitude lectures from all the nice people on this site were intended to be helpful, but each circumstance is different. SLC did not have all the info in her first post as she did later, but I felt she deserves sympathy, so here it is!!! By the way, does SLC stand for Salt Lake City? My son lives there and it is a beautiful area of the US!