Anxiety

Quick question... Has anyone ever had Anxiety cause by settings that werent properly programmed? I just feel like I am going crazy. I had a battery replacement 2 1/2 years ago, I used to have a medtronics and now I currently have a St Judes. Life was great with my Medtronics, until I got my St Judes and everything went down hill from there. Immediately when I came out of surgery I felt totally different... heart pounding, felt pacing and just really really weird. I complained to my doctor about the feelings and he said I just had to give it time. I immediatley didn't feel like myself, I felt really anxious for some reason, like restless and I did not feel this way with my old pacemaker, even before surgery when most people would be really nervous I was unusally calm per the nurses LOL. I feel my anxiety symptoms are due to how different I feel.I asked the doctor if I was programmed exactly the same and he insisted that I was until about 3 months ago when I finally went into his office and told him that I would like my old settings back because I wasn't feeling good. He finally acknolweldged that there a few "tweaks" done and so they agreed to match me up as close as possible to my old settings. Needless to say that I still don't feel that the "tweaks" did much of anything. I just feel like something has me feeling restless and anxious. Please Help. Thank you

5 Comments

changes

by JLTREBEL23 - 2017-02-22 15:41:34

LOL.... Good one IRON WILL.... Bio somewhat updated now. I get regular exercise and I am not overweight. I eat healthy and like I saidI felt great with my medtronics, now crappy with my St Jude.

Any medication changes?

by Hamsquatch - 2017-02-22 16:22:48

Have any of your meds changed? I can't comment on the setting causing anxiety, but since I've have my ICD I feel I get anxiety at times, the less I am doing (sitting on my duff watching tv) the more I get anxious about things. Try keeping busy for a whole day, clean the entire house or something, just try to keep busy. Just a thought. 

I believe you.

by Gotrhythm - 2017-02-24 12:28:41

I believe you. In normal hearts, the heart beat responds and changes as emotional states change. It only stands to reason that a pacemaker that wasn't programmed correctly, or optimally, could make you feel anxiety even though there are no external causes. 

You say you did fine on the Medtronic, and it sounds like your doctor is not really leveling with you. Doctors who try to placate me, instead of ***listening*** to me, make me furious. But I have learned don't get mad. Get moving. 

Find another doctor.

Thanks

by JLTREBEL23 - 2017-02-27 11:41:00

Thank you everyone for the support. My EP says that my symptoms might be related to my RR. It might be too aggressive for me and thus giving me these symptoms. I used to have a medtronics and now I have a ST Judes. He told me that it is a bit tricky to match them up because they are not truly matchable 1 to 1... for example medtronics uses #'s to show adjustments but St judes uses words like (fast, medium. slow etc.) or even vice versa. He started by reducing my reaction time from fast to medium and my recovery time from medium to slow. Since I have my own intrinsic heart rate he thinks that might be set a bit too high and casuing me symptoms. He also noted that there are threshold and slope settings to adjust but he wants to do 1 thing at a time and not adjust everything at the same time. Thank you everyone for the support!!! It is greatly appreciated.

Stay at it

by DaisyGrammy - 2017-04-06 18:12:48

I totally understand where you're coming from. This is my third pacemaker my first two were Medtronics now I have a Saint Jude. I am 1 week out from my Saint Jude insert and I feel very different. Went to the doctor today and I was also told that the rate response is hard to replicate from Medtronic to Saint Jude. They did some adjustments. Also have them look at the voltage that is going through the wires my voltage was nearly triple from my old settings. Give it a couple weeks and see how it does. A good doctor will listen to you and help you work through this. I know on my first pacemaker I had a setting of 60 beats per minute and that did not work for me. Once they upped it to 70 beats per minute it was like a light switch was turned on and I felt like I was alive again. 

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