My 4 month checkup was interesting

My doctor always has me do an EKG before he sees me. During the EKG, the nurse asked me if the lump on my chest was the pacemaker. I said yes and she pulled out this round object from the cart and placed it against the PM. I suddenly felt 'different', but not bad, and the lines on the EKG changed drastically. I asked her what the object was, and she said it was a magnet that shuts off the PM, so the doctor can see the differences. Now I know how close I have to get to a magnet before it affects me, as long as it isn't any bigger than the one I saw during that checkup. It also indicated I am paced 100% of the time. Not sure how I feel about that.

4 Comments

Insensitive

by Theknotguy - 2015-03-30 11:03:10

I'm always amazed at how insensitive some of the medical people happen to be. They changed your PM activity with no warning. Needless to say, I'd be upset.

Your tech person may be doing the testing all day, but it looks like it was the first time it happened for you. How rude. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it now.

For the future, I personally feel it would be worth a call into the doctor's office. Talk with his "nurse". Let them know the PM was altered with no warning on your part. While you were able to handle the situation, that may not be true for others.

The other question in my mind is if changing your PM activity could have had a negative effect on you. I'd really be ticked off if I ended up in an emergency run to the hospital because the tech plopped a magnet on my PM.

Glad to hear that overall things went OK for you. Hope things continue to go well with your PM and heart condition.

That's why I come here

by Busdriver - 2015-03-31 02:03:02

Knotguy, thanks for the input. That's why I come here every day, to learn from others what to expect from people who may have had a similar experience. I never really felt unsafe or in any kind of danger, and the only way I knew something had changed was by looking at the tape coming out of the EKG machine. The lines showed a regular heartbeat then suddenly there were a bunch of squiggly lines when she placed that magnet on me. After she told me the magnet shut off the PM, I asked her if it comes back on automatically. She assured me it did, and I could see that it did by the regular heartbeat on the EKG tape, which I took to my doctors office prior to the checkup. On a positive note, I learned that if I do get too close to something that shuts my PM off, it will come back on without having to pay for an ambulance ride and an ER visit.

Magnet response mode

by golden_snitch - 2015-03-31 02:03:46

The magnet shuts it off? Pacemakers have a magnet response rate, a rate at which they pace when you put a magnet on like the nurse did with you. This is usually faster than your programmed lower rate, for instance 90-100bpm. And the magnet also changes the mode to an asynchronos mode, so no AV-sequential pacing. But the magnet does not shut the pacemaker off. ICDs, on the other hand, are shut off when you put a magnet on.

http://www.medtronicfeatures.com/browse-features/all/CDF_DF_MAGNET

magnet

by cormac - 2015-03-31 08:03:01

I to am 100% paced. I have had a pacer for over 30 years so have learned to tell them wot i think I(not i a bad way) but as i am pacer dependant and have full heart block i don't like it when the magnet i placed over my box so i always tell them this when go for a check up. Maybe ur technician was new, they should no that everyone is different and reacts different to different things. That's my 2cents!

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