New

too young

by Tracey_E - 2016-12-28 07:26:16

One of my pet peeves is when they say we're too young to have a pacemaker. I've been hearing that for 20+ years! If we need it, we need it, doesn't matter how old we are. Our hearts are too slow, a high tech little piece of titanium can fix it. Don't give it more power than that. I hope your good days soon outnumber the bad, and that eventually you reach the point many of us do when we rarely give it a thought. There's nothing I want to do that I cannot, thanks to my pacemaker. 

same thing

by confused - 2016-12-28 11:18:57

I had nurses coming in and saying that to me also so I just replied "Awe well thank you for saying I am young".    I have learned that age has nothing to do with it.   As Tracy said if we need it we need it and thank goodness we got it!

I feel very thankful to have mine and wished I had gotten it even sooner. 

Right

by twinboo28 - 2016-12-28 11:53:11

Both of you all are absolutely right as long as my pacemaker is working properly then I don't have nothing to worry about and thank y'all 

Heart Block also

by todd_654 - 2016-12-28 20:08:33

I had 3rd degree heart block and never thought twice about a pacemaker. I needed it. It's that simple. I've only had mine for 11 days and so I'm still learning. But there are apparently many, many different reasons that people get pacemakers and only a few are related to age.

Yes

by twinboo28 - 2016-12-29 00:33:19

I'm still learning too about the pacemaker I still get nervous about it sometimes because my nurse practitioner told me it's people that are younger than me got a pacemaker and I'm 23 years old I got my pacemaker at the age of 22 so what were your symptoms before you find out that you need a pacemaker if you don't mind me asking 

No symptoms

by todd_654 - 2016-12-29 21:00:22

I didn't actually have any symptoms. I had hernia surgery on Friday, just routine out-patient surgery and was supposed to go home a few hours later. In recovery, I stood up and walked to the bathroom where I passed out. They hooked me up to the EKG and saw first degree heart block. So they took me to the cardiac unit. At one point there, I passed out again with all the meters still hooked up and it was clearly third degree heart block. No one really knows what triggered it, but the signal was pretty obvious. Fortunately, my heart restarted in a few seconds.

I've passed out before. Twice in high school and once earlier than that. Those could have been just vagal (like when people pass out at the sight of blood, it's nothing serious), but without the EKG no one knows for sure. Most of the time, my EKG looks perfect. All the other tests on my heart look quite good. So apparently the heart block only appears under extreme stress. But for all I know, if I stub my toe, my heart could stop. And what if it took a lot longer for my heart to restart, or what if it didn't.

Sorry for the long answer. If I had symptoms before, no one recognized them. Fortunately, my symptoms showed up while I was hooked up to the EKG.

What were your symptoms?