New pacemaker

I am an athlete diagnosed with chronotropic incompetence.  I received a dual sensor Boston Scientific pacemaker. It is set at  min 60 bpm and Max 150 bpm. I am  often light headed and have  weakpulse rapid heart rate  3 weeks after installation, when walking or playing tennis.The docs have no idea what to do .  I am so frustrated. Is there some sort of adaptation period they did not tell me about and it's getting more frequent

2 Comments

adapting

by Tracey_E - 2016-11-16 22:20:46

It's still early days! They usually leave the settings alone for the first few weeks until the leads settle in and the heart gets used to being paced. Then they can begin to fine tune. First thing, ask them to put it higher than 150, that's not much if you are an athlete. It should go to at least 180. Second, if you have chronotropic incompetence, you are using rate response to get your rate up on exertion. This has a number of sensitivity settings and it's perfectly normal to take a few tries to get it right because they like to make changes in small increments. 

If you are getting a rapid pulse too easily, they might be able to turn down the sensitivity. I've found that if mine is sensitive enough to get my rate up quickly enough/high enough to work out, it also jumps up quickly when I walk up the stairs or sometimes even across the room. I chose to leave it alone- I'd rather be annoyed getting a little short of breath doing things around the house than struggle to work out. Sometimes there is no perfect answer.

It's still very early for them to be giving up! It's not uncommon for a doctor to not have many active paced patients like us so they may not always have the answers we need. Sometimes they have to do some homework or contact the manufacturer for suggestions. There are lots of resources for them if they are willing to look. If they are not willing, it might be time for a second opinion. 

It will get better

by Redding - 2016-11-16 22:51:47

3-6 months to start felling "right"

yes, you do feel light headed, low energy, ...

plus the mental issues.... of dealing with this new thing in you... 😟

it does get better .  It took me several months to stop thinking about it every 5 minutes... now I just think about it every 2-3 hours.😀

It gets better.... 👍

You know you're wired when...

You have a dymo-powered bike.

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The experience of having a couple of lengths of wire fed into your heart muscle and an electronic 'box' tucked under the skin is not an insignificant event, but you will survive.