Cell phones

phones

by Tracey_E - 2017-05-28 08:28:00

All phones have very small magnets, too small to affect us. Some advice is keep them 6" from the device, but if your pacer is new that advice is probably overkill. Magnets won't damage the pacer. Worst case, a magnet can temporarily put it in test mode until we get away from it. But it has to be a very strong magnet and very close to the device in order to do that. The thing they put over it to interrogate is a magnet. 

phone box

by dwelch - 2017-05-30 04:41:36

I dont know if they give these things out anymore since the major brands have other take home boxes that communicate in a different way.  But there are/were boxes that you used initially with your landline phone then would work with a wireless, and maybe cellular/mobile not sure didnt try it.  You have two wrist straps one for each side.  When on basically does a form of ekg and modulates it so it can go over the phone so sounds like a modem if you remember what those sound like.  You would place the magnet provided in the box over the pacer, this put it in a test mode, which turns your heart rate into a voltmeter, the rate tells them what the pacer says the battery voltage is, when the voltage dropped to a certain level (many years after implant) this would tell them if you needed to maybe make an early visit rather than whatever you had scheduled next.  

the punchline to the story is that the magnet was pretty large between 2 or 3 inches in diameter, doesnt necessarily define the overall strength, but even with doing this for 10-20 years, still tricky to get the magnet right in the sweet spot that put it in this test mode.  Then when I got a different brand, and a much smaller device, even harder.  there are magnets all around you all the time, unless you really try they are not going to affect you, certainly not one in your cell phone.  If it does it will "simply" lock you in a pace while in test mode, and you move it away and you go back to normal.  The test mode pace is likely going to be in the 60s or 70s, I dont have any charts though to show that.  It does not turn your pacemaker off.

first and foremost this is legal protection on their part.  If you read around this site you will see that coffe makers and extension cords and you name it eletrical device has a pacemaker warning.  they are just trying to protect themselves legally.    Hugging transformers and getting close to generators in a power plant and other items within a power plant can confuse the pacer, (and it will stop pacing so long as you are in that field) but your hairdryer, phone, etc are fine.

No point getting in an argument with the doc or techs BTW, they may be required to tell you this or that even if they dont believe it they need to go with the company line.  So their statements may or may not be consistent with ours.  Some of us have had doctors that shoot us straight on this and some (I assume) that are told by their practices that they have to lean heavily on the side of caution.

The most important thing is you need to mentally be okay, if you walk around in fear of everyting around you, you will be worse off than you really are, this device makes you better not worse.  

old timer question

by Tracey_E - 2017-05-30 09:30:22

dwelch, did you get a magnet with your first one? This was long before the home boxes. I was given a white magnet a little bigger than the size of my thumb and was told "if I had problems", hold the magnet over it. I never quite understood what that would accomplish, and I never used it, but I also never had a fear of magnets because they handed me one when I left the hospital!

I still have it. It's pretty strong,  I keep it in my junk drawer and it is always covered in paperclips and anything else nearby that's metal. A few years ago I was having episodes they couldn't pin down so they turned on some type of diagnostic mode and told me to put the magnet over the device when I had a problem and it would work like a bookmark when they ran the interrogation. I did use that a couple of times. Precursors to Merlin.