pauses in heart beat

hi all,
Had this happen to me today, I worked all day and was exhausted. When I got home all I could do was sit down, kinda light headed but mainly extreme fatigue, so I took my HR and it was in high 50's but I noticed a pause every few beats. I also recently experienced chest pain on inhalation while I was on my walk adn light headedness, I barely finished my walk but was fine the next day. I've had my PM x 10 yrs., with my generator replaced 2006 plus an extra lead placed at that time. Last interrogation revealed my leads were touching or something causing me near fainting episodes, but nothing is to be done right away unless symptoms increase. So, my question is why would my HR have pauses now when it never did before? Seems when I move around the beats are regular??? The only dx. I have is sick sinus syndrome which is the reason for my PM, but I have no other heart problems, don't take meds even.
Thanks in advance to any you have any ideas,
Pat

3 Comments

Hi,

by Gellia2 - 2008-09-16 10:09:40

I'm not sure if this would apply to you, but I have a loose wire that caused me interference. It made the pacemaker think the heart was working on its own and shut it off. As I have 3rd degree heart block and am 100% dependent, I went into asystole and had seizure which left me comatose for several days. Not a happy thing, but nothing permanent except a bit of anxiety there for awhile.
It was called "cross talk" and fixed by, I believe lengthing the pause between the action of the two chambers "chatting" with one another.
Hope this helps.
Best to you.
Gellia

Gulp! that is un-nerving!

by jonpt - 2008-09-17 01:09:38

I don't want to ask, but is this sort of thing a regular occurrence? I have an Boston Scientific Altrua DDDR, and being a new 'implantee' (2 weeks ago) and not knowing much about it, apart from what the booklets say I'm completely new to this.
I'm trying to be positive about everything and I do feel better, but reading some of this stuff has me worried!
I do have to say that the doctors, consultants and cardiac nurses here in the UK are great, but still it's a bit scary!
Just have to live life the best way I can I suppose.
Jon

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by ElectricFrank - 2008-09-17 01:09:41

The pacemaker should have recorded the event and some indication of what happened.
I am amazed at the cavalier attitude these docs have about leaving defective leads on your pacemaker and doing "workarounds" to try to get the whole setup to work. Would you want to fly on an airline that had one flat tire so asked the pilot to continue landing on one wheel so they wouldn't have to fix the tire?
I have the technical manual for my Medtronics pacemaker and there are no instructions in it for reprogramming to handle defective leads except as an emergency measure.
My suggestion is to ask for a written statement by the cardiologist or EP stating that this is normal acceptable practice and giving a detailed description of what has been done.
Of course this does entail your being willing to go through some more surgery to fix the lead problem.

frank

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