headed in to get mine next week

I am having a hard time knowing that my SA node will decompensate more and more over time and my pacer will work more and more. When my own heart doesn't beat on its own will I still be alive? Its a weird thing to think about!?

A month ago my heart rate was in the 30-40, now I am in the 20s..

Thoughts?

5 Comments

Thoughts?

by Grateful Heart - 2015-03-31 09:03:11

Well, my first one is what your moniker may stand for...but I'll keep that one to myself. :-)

Our pacemakers are very reliable. If you HR is now in the 20's, you will feel so much better beating at 60-70 bpm. Many of us pace 100% or close to it.

It is weird to think about it in the beginning but you get used to it. Kinda like someone wearing glasses or a hearing aid.

Good luck next week....keep us posted.

Grateful Heart

your heart will still beat!

by Tracey_E - 2015-03-31 09:03:46

The pacer doesn't beat for you. You most likely have a structurally perfectly normal and healthy heart but with an electrical short circuit, a lazy SA node. The pm is your watchdog. It senses your heart is not going fast enough and sends an electrical signal that mimics what your heart should be doing on its own. The heart responds to the signal by contracting (beating). Paced beats feel the same as not paced beats. Most of us can't tell if we're pacing or not.

If your rate is already that low, you may pace close to 100%. Many of us have paced 100% for many years (20 for me), it's really no big deal. I have an underlying beat without the pacer, and you will too. It's not fast enough for us to feel good, but it would keep us alive if needed. However, it won't be needed, because we'll have cool high tech computer there picking up the slack every time our wonky hearts slow down too much. Honestly,it sounds worse than it is! Most of us find that we heal and get back to being active, and we forget it's there.

Back-up system

by golden_snitch - 2015-04-01 02:04:21

If your SA node fails, you still have several escape rhythms: AV-node, His-Bundle, Purkinje Fibers. Our heart has a very good back-up system. The AV-node can easily do 40-60 bpm, in many patients it can go even faster. Plus, as the others said, pacemakers usually do not fail. They are very reliable.

Pacing 100% in the atria is really no issue. Pacing 100% in the right ventricle can have side-effects, but this has not been observed when only the atria were paced.

Good luck with your surgery!

I Got Used to Mine

by Runningmama - 2015-04-03 09:04:12

Hey There!

I actually had that very same thought, kind of with a resentful tone to it. I was shocked at the idea of even needing the "device" much less accepting and okay with the idea. I'm a fit super mom in her mid thirties, that kind of healthy person no one really likes to eat with LOL, until one day heart block and bradycardia came to town. The emotional part has been the hardest for me that's for sure, along with still feeling the recovery beats five months later... BUT, I have completely fell in love with the little battery thingy (LOL), it has saved my hind end so many times, I just get used to it happening, don't even look for it, watch, or wait anymore. I just accept it will happen and it does.

MY POINT IS: electrical problems can happen to anyone, the members here are the lucky ones whom had the issues caught and addressed. As for the pacemaker, TIME makes all the difference in the world. As you learn to trust it most of the time, you will accept it all of the time, and thus learn to trust it more of the time, and so on, you get my point.

I hope I've helped!!!!

good read

by WTF - 2015-04-04 12:04:30

My husband and I found an article written in 1970 that describes exactly the emotions I am having with this pacemaker issue! It is worth the read-
Psychological implications of pacemaker insertion. Great read and very short. Amazing that doctors do not even acknowledge that we may have some concern other than the surgical procedure (which we know is quick and easy…but it is our body!!)

You know you're wired when...

You have the perfect reason to show off your chest.

Member Quotes

I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for pacemakers. I've had mine for 35+ years. I was fainting all of the time and had flat-lined also. I feel very blessed to live in this time of technology.