Constantly running pacemaker

I recently had a pacemaker put in on December 8th. Since then I had felt it kick on often but was never overly concerned. Tonight it has been going for two hours straight. Has anyone else experienced this before?

3 Comments

Call your Doctor

by Grateful Heart - 2016-01-18 01:01:34


Most are not doctors here and we can't possibly tell what is going on from what you describe.

It's better to be safe than sorry.

Grateful Heart

yep, call your dr

by Tracey_E - 2016-01-18 02:01:51

Odds are it's not pacing but they can probably figure out what you are feeling if they interrogate the pacer and you tell them what time it happened.

That said, there is no magic number that's good or bad, if we feel good then we are pacing the right amount. For some people that's kicking in to stop a 10 second pause a few times a year, for some of us it means pacing every single beat. Most are between those two extremes.

Not necessarily anything

by Theknotguy - 2016-01-18 12:01:32

You don't give any information in your bio. Knowing what kind of device you have can help with our answers.

First question in my mind is if you feel the pacemaker or feel the effects? Or are you feeling the imagined effects.

I am one of the rare individuals who can feel my afib. Right after I got my pacemaker and while they had the voltage set high, I'd occasionally feel the tickle when the pacemaker kicked off, followed by the heavy thump of the heartbeat. Even then I'd only occasionally feel the tickle. Once they reduced the voltage I never felt the tickle again.

Since then I've gone back to feeling my afib, also feeling PVC, PAC, fast heartbeats, etc. Most of the time I don't feel anything. So what I feel isn't the pacemaker or something caused by the pacemaker. Just normal problems with my heart due to the heart problems I have.

So are you feeling the pacemaker, or something caused by your heart problems?

Due to changes in my heart problems they've adjusted my pacemaker. They turned on APP (Atrial Preference Pacing) and my pacing went from 60 to 90%. So the pacemaker is initiating 9 out of 10 heartbeats.

That doesn't mean I would immediately die if my pacemaker were to stop. It just means my biological pacemaker isn't keeping the rate set by the pacemaker timer.

Since you're still sitting upright, able to communicate over the Internet, probably able to take nourishment, are still breathing, and probably aren't in too much pain, I'd relax as much as you can and not get worked up about it.

In any case, I'd call your EP's office and get clarification as to what's going on. I'd also ask about what you're feeling and get clarification about that.

Hope everything else is going well for you.

In any case, it would be worth a call to your EP to get a clarification of what you feel.

You know you're wired when...

You trust technology more than your heart.

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