Battery replacement

I got a muscle ache flu while away from home. No stomach issues. Passed out in restaurant awaiting table. Bradycardia. EMT took me to local hospital. Admitted, pain meds, EKG's, carotid scans, echo cardio. Was told I needed a pacemaker - 2008. Called home doc on the weekend back East (I was in Southern Calif). Advice: make sure the doc has done it before. OK, he's done many over the years, I found out. So now I have a pacemaker. I've never had any issues before or since, although I've been successfully treated for hypertension since age 40. I'm 69. I asked my regular cardiologist what he would have done had it happened at home. Probably would have been admitted and treated for suspected pericarditis with steroids, etc. I was never treated for pericarditis in the hospital out West. Looking back, I think the pacemaker was overkill, killing a fly with a sledge hammer, perhaps a rush to judgment. Now that I have a pacemaker, we know more about my heart than the average guy. Every little extra beat, every little rhythmic issue. How many people without a pacemaker have the same issues (or non issues) as I do, and live totally normal lives, not dying of a heart attack or heart disease. I've never been diagnosed with heart disease, no chest pain, exercise regularly, eat well, am in fairly good shape. Now that my battery change date is approaching, my doctor has mentioned installation of a defibrillator. I don't want to be walking around thinking I could be shocked at any moment. I don't think I even should have the pacemaker. "But a defibrillator can prevent you from dying." Yes, but that's if the reason for a defib exists. Risk management vs. elimination of all risk. Should I get an apartment next door to the ER? I'm in a quandary, and wonder if anyone else is dealing with this situation or has had to in the past.

2 Comments

20/20 vision

by knb123 - 2016-02-27 11:02:19

Presumably you had an abnormally low heart rate when you were admitted and the decision to implant came from analyzing all the test results. I think many of us wonder sometimes if we "really" needed that PM. For myself, I know a pulse rate of 37 was not normal and although I had the doctors at my teaching hospital scratching their heads because I didn't fit the profile, their best science was to implant the PM. Although I didn't pass out beforehand, who's to say I wouldn't have done so while driving a car, working out at the gym, etc. And then it might have been too late for me (and I might have hurt someone else in the process).

You know what they say about hindsight. While my emotional side sympathizes with what you're saying, my rational side says "why look back?" My PM allows me to live a full, normal life and I almost never even think about it anymore.

Given how you're feeling, why don't you get a second opinion? That might help you decide.

battery replcmt/2020 vision

by apjfk - 2016-02-28 04:02:16

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, my heart rate was low momentarily, and that's the reason I passed out briefly and was admitted. Looking back, I'm surprised now that they didn't first assess/treat for pericarditis, before going ahead with implantation. Treatment for pericarditis is not a PM first. That would come later if needed. I'd had a viral infection in my body, which most likely got to my heart. I'm not a doc, but that's what I learned talking to my doc here, and checking around. But when it comes to the suggestion to add a defibrillator, I think I will go for a 2nd opinion for sure. I wonder how many people are out there without a PM who have occasional minor PAC's, VAC's, short little extra beats, etc., with no symptoms whatsoever, and who will never know (because of no symptoms felt), and who die of something other than heart disease or heart attack. Once we have a PM, the doc knows every single "missed beat." Heart rhythm data is a bio statistic, and every bio statistic has normal non-pathological variation, I suspect. I don't mind having the PM now that I have it. It's not a problem. I don't think I'd feel the same with a defib installed. Thanks again.

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I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.