Heart pounding symptoms

I am 79 almost 80 and I had a St jude pacemaker fitted 3 weeks ago today for blocking, It was set up within a couple of hours after surgery by a technician accompanied a trainee and there seemed to be some difficulties in getting it right but after spending some time they went away saying that seemed to be alright but I had the impreession that they were not fullly satisfied with the results they had obtained. Any way I had to contact the hospital again within 2  o r3 days as my heart seemed to be racing they said this was due to someting caled PTM and made an appointment to see me again almost immediatly. They retested the pace maker  and found it was doing110 beats a minute and and they slowed it down to between 60 -  70 beats a minute but since then I have had trouble where my heart starts starts to pound, I can feel it pounding in my head and I seem to get astrange taste at the back of my throat. I feel very uncomfortable when tis happens as it feels as though my heart is fighting with my pacemaker but after a while it returns to normal and I feel alright again but tired. Is this the part of the body adjusting itself to the pacemaker and will go away in time or should I be concerned? I have another appointment to see the clinic in just over two weeks. Has anyone experience anything similar?

1 Comments

PMT is rare but it happens

by Gotrhythm - 2018-06-06 14:39:30

PMT is pacemaker mediated tachycardia. Basically, the interaction of heart and pacemaker gets caught in a positive feedback loop. A change in the pacemaker's programming will ususaly take care of it.

Your feeling that your heart if fighting with the pacemaker might be right on. Some hearts do take a while to adjust to being paced. And it can take several adjustments to your pacemaker's settings to get them optimal for you.

In my opinion, it's early to be too concerned, but if after a few tries, adjustments don't help, don't be shy about seeking a second opinion from another doctor, an electrophysiologist--a cardiologist who specializes in rhythm problems and pacemakers. There can be odd little glitches in your heart's natural rhythm that it takes an expert to deal with.

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