Feeling my Pacemaker Kick in

I just got my first pacemaker on Thursday. It is a Biotronik with CLS. I can feel what I think is the CLS sensor kick in 10-20x per day. It feels like when they were testing my ventricular lead yet I'm not supposed to be pacing from the ventricle at all. I was totally awake without sedation when they implanted it so I was able to feel everything.

So during my low BP times (which is when the CLS SHOULD kick in) I feel that my heart is racing and beating powerfully and irregularly. It usually races up to 120-150 bpm at those times. My settings are 80 minimum 160 maximum. Is this normal to feel that? I have the pacemaker for vasovagal syncope, sudden drops in HR and symptomatic bradycardia episodes to the 30's mid-day.

3 Comments

Welcome to the club

by KAG - 2014-09-29 11:09:20

You say that you got your PM due to low HR. Do you know if you have a problem with your sinus node? or just your AV node, as in heart block?

The PM doesn't do much of anything as far as BP goes. It's designed to fix electrical problems. If your sinus node is working OK then your heart is setting your HR. However you say you don't think your ventricle is paced. I'm guessing that means your AV node is OK and you do have a problem with your sinus node. If this is the case then your PM will set the pace. I'm not familiar with the Biotronik CLS but there are people on this site who are. You can also do a search, upper right corner, and find lots of info. I think it does a lot of self adjusting and needs some time to do this.

Since you just got your PM I'd say a lot of what you're feeling is your body adjusting to your PM. It takes time. Your mind also needs to adjust. If you've had low HR for some time it probably feels funny to have a higher HR. Give it time. There are lots of posts for newbies too.

Let your self heal and as soon as you are up to it get back to your normal activities.

What a CLS does

by Gotrhythm - 2014-09-29 12:09:27

Ever curious, I looked up CLS. At a NIH website in a clinical trials report I found this rationale for use of the CLS.

VVS=vasovagal syncope

"During VVS, an increase in myocardial contractility associated with a reduction of ventricular filling produces an increase in baroreceptor afferent flow and a consequent decrease in the heart rate. The CLS algorithm is a form of rate-adaptive pacing, which responds to myocardial contraction dynamics, by measuring variations in right ventricular intracardiac impedance: during an incipient VVS it could increase paced heart rate and avoid bradycardia, arterial hypotension and syncope.

If I am reading it correctly, when you have "low BP" and feel your heart speed up, the CLS is doing exactly what it is intended to do to keep you from fainting.

A discussion with your DR about what the CLS does when it senses a VVS episode would probably reassure you a lot.

Might be Normal

by brushmore - 2014-10-01 08:10:45

I got the same type of pacemaker last year also for vasovagal syncope. What your experiencing sounds a lot like what I went through. It was hard to get used to at first. After the first interrogation my some setting were change and that helped a bit. Eventually I got used to the pacemaker and it probably got used to me. I started feeling it less and less kicking in. Now almost a year later I hardly ever feel it.

You know you're wired when...

You participate in the Pacer Olympics.

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