Occasionally feeling irregular heartbeat 2 weeks post pacemaker implant

I had a pacemaker implanted two weeks ago to keep my heart rate from dropping too low. I have afib and the afib is well controlled with Sotalol.  However, the Sotalol was causing my heart rate to drop into the low 30's. Thus the pacemaker. Surgery and recovery have gone well but I feel as though my heart is beating irregularly for short periods of time on occasion. I only seem to notice this when I am relaxing and then all I can think of is that I'm going back into afib. Then my anxiety level skyrockets and I think I feel the irregular beat even more. Is it normal to feel an occasional irregular heartbeat when you have a pacemaker?  This is all new to me and I really don't know what I should be feeling. Help!  I will see my EP next week but in the meantime I thought I'd ask if others have ever had this same feeling. 

2 Comments

irregular beats

by Tracey_E - 2017-10-05 10:06:32

Perfectly normal! It's also normal to be hyper aware of our heart beat at first and notice little things that may have been there all along but we didn't have a reason to pay attention. All the pacer will do is add beats when your rate gets too low. If you are anxious and your rate takes off, the pacer will just watch. Even when it paces, there's no guarantee the rate will be perfectly smooth all the time. The heart can add little half beats in between the full beats (PVC or PAC), it can speed up and slow down but still be going fast enough that it doesn't pace. If you are set to a minimum of 60, that means it won't let you go a second without a beat. Sometimes this means pacing every second  nice and regular but more often it means pacing here and there. It will always give the  heart a chance to beat on its own before pacing. The only guarantee is it won't be too slow! 

I remember ....

by MartyP - 2017-10-05 22:38:49

Right after I got Sparky on May 27th I too started feeling some PVC's and they scared the crap out me..  

For me they were directly tied to feelings of anxiety....  Once the anxiety started to taper off and I accepted Sparky into my everyday life they have all but stopped, or at least I don't notice them.

There was a post a while ago that suggested when you get PVC's, sip some water slowly, that also worked for me.

Also if are drinking caffeinated drinks or eating chocolate you may want to stop and see if it helps, again it helped me although I do miss my Keurig "Dark Magic"  😊

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