Fatigue with hr of 42

Hi, I am 66 and scheduled for pm on Thurs. my dr is somewhat dismissive of my complaints of fatigue with a resting hr of 42, it goes up to 60 when exersizing. He is putting in pm because I also have some atrial tachycardia and he wants to increase meds.
Is it unusual to be fatigued at this rate? Nervous as he has not told me what rate pm will be set to, and if it will help. I want to get back on bicycle soon - we rode across USA last year and want to plan more trips.

3 Comments

Exercise Rate

by BillH - 2016-03-29 02:03:17

The effects of a heart rate of 42 varies from person to person. Some people are fine with it and other have fatique and/or lightheaded.

And it can depend on the reason for the 42. Is that the sinus rate or is the sinus faster and there is a partial heart block?

Also since you are on meds many of those used for AT cans cause fatigue. What are you on?

But I am concerned about the HR of 60 when exercising. I don't know if that is a typo or if just mean when standing up.

Under heavy exercise, such as hard hill climbing when you run out of gears, it might be any place from 130 to 180 (there is lots of variability between individuals).

What kind of PM are you schedule to get single or dual chamber?

And have you discussed rate response? If you need that feature the typical accelerometer used in most PM is limited to cyclist. You don't have enough motion compared to your effort. There are PM that include minute ventilation in controlling the rate response. It is based on increased breathing. There is also another method called CLS (closed loop stimulation) that is better than plain accelerometer.

I mention all of this because I am in a somewhat similar situation. I have sick sinus syndrome. And my resting HR will bounce around 42-55. But dropping to 35 sometime during sleep.

And I get brief burst of HR into 90's. And rarely true AT (over 100). And a few other random arrhythmia. But none of this give me an symptoms.

My EP wants to put me on a beta blocker. But that will lower my HR too much and thus a PM.

But a beta blocker also reduces exercise ability. So I am resisting this at the present time.

But most likely the SSS will get worse over time and I will need the PM. And I am also a cyclist so I have investigate the different types of PM.



fatigue

by Tracey_E - 2016-03-30 04:03:28

With a resting rate in the low 40's and only get up in the 60's on exertion, then yes, I would expect to be tired. As Bill said, beta blockers will wipe you out also, esp at first. Don't sweat the settings now. What they send us home with is not what we'll have long term. They adjust things after a few weeks once we heal and the heart gets used to pacing, and then they'll fine tune it more to meet your needs.

Bill, bb's make it harder to exercise, but not impossible. I've been doing Crossfit while on atenolol for 5 years. Not ideal and I'm not going to break any records, but I am the most fit I've ever been.

To both of you, if you cycle it matters which pacer you get. There have been a lot of conversations here on minute ventilation vs CLS if you do a search. You for sure don't want one that's only motion.

biking

by ladybug55 - 2016-04-01 04:04:01

I used to bike longer distances but since being disgnosed with dysautonomia was unable to. In fact I knew something was wrong when I had to dive off my bike, dizzy with a crazy
heartrate.
I bought a new bike five months after getting a BIOTRONIK Evia pacemaker. I could only do five miles but at least I was on my bike.
In December ( on a crazy warm day in the Northeast) I went 15 miles. It was heaven. I take every bike ride now as a gift from God.,

You know you're wired when...

You can feel your fingers and toes again.

Member Quotes

I consider my device to be so reliable, that I never think about a failure.