How did I get here?

Absolutely normal only to have an electrical problem !

by IAN MC - 2017-11-19 08:27:53

Hi Welcome to the club .  Most active people ask " Why me ? " when they suddenly develop electrical problems of the heart . Your Dr is being honest with you when he tells you that he hasn't a clue what triggered off these problems.

Even if you knew,  would it make a scrap of difference ?   You are where you are , so these  " Why me " thoughts don't achieve anything.

There is definitely no need to worry about plumbing problems because you have an electrical problem . Often with plumbing problems such as blocked coronary arteries , the cause is known and may be due to lifestyle choices, electrical problems can suddenly happen out of the blue , cause unknown.

You are only 2 days in ,   Please report back after a few weeks . I bet you will be feeling fine . It is possible that your PM may need some adjustments to the settings.

Best of luck

Ian

Thx

by Ticktocknl - 2017-11-19 10:44:21

Thanks for the info guys.  I’ll report back when I get my 6 week adjustment.  Feeling better each day.

Welcome

by Gotrhythm - 2017-11-19 14:37:43

Lots of people here will relate to your story. More than one doctor tried to tell me I was having panic attacks.

I found several youtube videos about pacemakers and heart block helpful as I came to grips with life with a pacemaker. Looiking at them I could see that heart block is something really different from a blocked artery.

Right now your pacemaker is probably still on the out of the box settings, but younger people like you often need more customized settings to support a more active, demanding lifestyle. The more you know about your pacemaker and how it is working with your heart, the better questions you will ask.

Welcome to the club. A steady heartbeat is a wonderful thing. 

Inquisitive Cardiologist

by Mapleshaz - 2017-11-19 16:59:19

Although my Cardiologist knew mine was an electrical problem, he nevertheless wanted to rule out other problems so ordered a Cardiac MRI. It is a long procedure, over 2 hours in the scanner and the results were all negative.... valves perfect, arteries clear, etc. It was deduced that my electrical problem was probably genetic/familial.

At least I now know that it was not caused by some of my life choices and there was nothing that I should have done differently.

Finding the cause

by Hulahoop - 2017-11-20 00:08:33

Hi,

It's really hard trying to understand why this happened. I'll never forget the intrigued doctors standing round my bed saying, "so your heart's not going to stop any more, you've got your Pacemaker, but you're way too young for this to happen." So that feeling of some deep root cause being there, waiting to be revealed will probably never go away.

But I'm just coming to terms with the fact that this is life now. My electrics went funny, and that's it. New start, new things to learn. 

It's great to investigate and inform yourself, but also healthy to accept.

Keep talking to people, friends family psychologists cardiologists... Whoever, it's not easy, but it's reassuring to know you're alive and you're not alone. That's how I now see it, after a couple of very up and down months. Be easy on yourself, and get into trial and error mode :)

Take care x

mysteries

by Tracey_E - 2017-11-20 11:27:38

If you haven't had an infection or been on medications that can cause it, you will probably never know. That's the case for most of us here. The good news is it's unrelated to other issues and most of us are otherwise healthy. We get the pacer to fix it then get on with our lives.

Exercising keeps the heart muscles strong, eating well keeps the arteries clear, so nothing you did caused it and nothing you could have done differently would have prevented it. The tests you had were appropriate for diagnosis and ruling out anything else going on. We've had some members to go through more extensive testing to find a cause but they tend to not have answers either, just more medical bills to pay. 

Searching for Answers

by Grateful Heart - 2017-11-20 14:10:30

When the doctors tell us they don't know what caused our electrical problems, it's common to wonder why at first.  We all like answers that make sense but for many of us, there are no sensible answers.  

I didn't know anyone who had a pacemaker and I didn't know about this site until a couple of years after I had my implant. In the beginning when I was searching for answers, one of my Cardios told me it was "idiopathic".  He said that means we're idiots....we don't know what caused it.  I laughed so hard for the first time since my implant...and it was then I knew I would be ok because I was laughing again.

From then on I learned I needed to just accept it.  Acceptance as well as education is the key.  Knowledge is power!

Grateful Heart