Pacemaker Club: Pacemakers and active activities and pulse

Pacemakers and active activities and pulse

by nicbridge
2018-04-17 21:56:15
Checkups & Settings
1403 views
2 comments

I havent posted here for a few years as my PM's been pretty stable although it has its quirks.

To my great relief when browsing the posts here I found plenty of people discussing my 2 main issues of the pacemaker pushing my pulse to high when not needed (like when driving on rougher roads) causing pain and discomfort and the pacemaker not pushing my pulse quick enough when needed (sudden activity) causing bad shortness of breath.

The answer always seems to be that you keep tweaking but its a compromise.

It made me think however - how about a phone app that we can use to select some preset modes for our pacemakers? I know they'd never let me play with all the settings but what about presets for a range of activities that the PM owner takes part in. I'd like a custom driving setting so I dont loose responsiveness normally but do when driving...

Serious question however: Anyone got any thoughts on the long term implicatons of always being at 95-110 bpm when driving? Those rates I dont notice, its just when the PM pushes me up to 130-135 that it gets painfull when behind in a car.

2 Comments

settings

by Tracey_E - 2018-04-18 09:55:05

It's sometimes a compromise, for sure. I put up with getting sob walking across the room in exchange for getting up quickly when I work out. I would love to be able to tell my pacer when I'm at the gym but settings are a prescription so even tho technologically it can probably be easily done now, I don't see it ever happening.

How high is too high to be safe long term is a question for your doctor but I think under 100 is considered ok as a resting rate.

Settings

by gooch - 2018-04-18 11:59:44

Early in the day my heart rate is about 40-45. Later in the afternoon it gets up to about 65. Can the St Jude tech make any adhustmnets so I get my heart rate higher in the morning?