Recovery time

You need your PM adjusted for you

by crustyg - 2020-05-02 05:13:38

I echo Ar_vin's comments, it helps our remote diagnosis (aka guesswork).

The chances are that your PM has been installed with near factory-default settings, which may be far from ideal for *you*.  With luck you have a 4-6week post-implant review already scheduled, and this is your chance to get your PM settings adjusted to what *you* need.

Example: my PM, fitted for Bradycardia and CI had a maxHR of 130bpm (not so crazy while the leads bed in) and near-default settings for rate response.  At six weeks had a formal tuning session, changed pacing mode, max HR increased to 160bpm, rate response increased considerably.  Result =>massive improvement in matching HR to muscle needs.

In your own time

by CMH22567 - 2020-05-02 07:56:26

I have brady/tachy and complete heart block. It took a good 6 months to feel great and even now 1 year on, I still have had some shocking days with brady/tachy, where I can only lay down and rest all day.  Since the pacemaker only pushes up the rate for ventricles to min 60, it is not always in sync with the top chambers, especially if they want to go tachy, therefore out of sync for a couple of seconds to up to 4 days. Good luck.  

Now that you have a pacemaker, now what?

by Gotrhythm - 2020-05-02 15:55:12

When I think about all the things I didn't know about living with a pacemaker, and didn't know I needed to know, I feel like i'm looking into that meteor crater in Arizona, the hole is so big.

I didn't know there were settings, and I didn't know settings have everything to do with how you feel. I never would have supposed that the professionals themselves did not know what the settings should be. All they can do is make an educated guess.

Getting the settings right means giving them feedback, and possibly, several tries.

Sometime in the next 4 weeks, you'll be called back for a pacemaker check. That's when the professionals will need you to tell them how you feel and how you want to feel. What kind of activities you like to do. To get your settings right they need to know these things about you. --and frankly, so do we, if we are to give you more than the most general answers.

Fill out that bio. We're here to help.

History leading up to implant

by Omni - 2020-05-04 21:22:08

Thank you for the responses.  I will try and be brief in my history, it’s a bit involved.  It started About 35 years ago.  I was a very healthy athletic 31 year old with five children and a self employed mechanic.  One day for no known reason, I had a massive heart attack.  My MB count was off the chart.  When I got to the hospital my blood pressure was almost gone.  I went to Debora Heart and lung where they did a heart Cath.  They could not find the reason for the heart attack but there was noticeable damage to my lower left ventricle.

They at the time thought it was a non reoccurring infarction caused by a virus.  

On the back side of this experience, I found I had no energy.  I suffered with chronic fatigue ever since and I am 65 years old now.  I went to many hospitals and doctors over the years.  So much guessing and so many tests that most all thought it was in my head.  Until a few years ago I met a doctor in Atlanta, GA specializing in integrative medicine  The first thing he did was to do a urine challenge for metal.  The results were nothing less then shocking.

After testing, it we found I not only had a huge load of metals in my body and most of the levels were off the chart, from lead to mercury.    This was understandable since I worked exclusively in the metal industry for many years.  However, there were two metals I had never heard of.  I had very high levels of thallium and Cesium.  These metals are radioactive and they are rare and most often found in rat poison.  Yes!  I was poisoned and it took me 33 years to figure it out.

With this knowledge, the doctors decided chelate my blood and remove the metals.  This was a disaster.  They did not realize they needed to use a special chelate IV for radioactive metals not just metal!  They pulled all the radioactive metals out but they did not realize it’s so toxic that before the body can excrete the metals, it’s reabsorbed back into the body and redistributed. 

To this point even though I had chronic fatigue for 33 years I had built a manufacturing company that was very successful.  I owned a high performance airplane with an  Instrument pilot license. This was all gone now.  I found myself sitting at my desk crying not able to deal with life.   I stopped flying, I stopped working and retired to a home on a island where I live today.  

Pace Maker:  these past few years I experienced very high blood pressures in the mornings.  The doctor kept upping my vein expander to no avail.  Then I bought an Apple Watch and found that I was living with the heart rate of 40 to 50 BPM most of the day and low 30s at night.  My fatigue had reached the disability level.  My cardiologist is a good plummer.  He looked and looked for a blockage but would not address the low heart rate. So after two years, Of me having the iwatch I started pushing the idea on him until he sent me to a pacemaker doctor   As soon As the new doctor heard my numbers, he did an emergency surgery in the middle of the pandemic and now  I got my new pacemaker!  

I gave you this background for a reason.  I now wondered if all these years that original heart attack that damaged my left ventrical  could be the cause of the low heart rate?  The pacemaker shows usage upper right ventricle is 82%. Lower is 84% usage. Until recently I never looked at my BPM.  

I am not sure if all this abuse just caught up to me or was it my heart all along.  Maybe the Pacemaker will be a life saver?  Right now I am still extremely tiered.  

Sleeping with the heart rate of 32 BPM with also very bad sleep apnea, one can imagine the nights of suffering I have endured.   The only positive thing I can tell since the pacemaker install is my blood pressure is now great all day long!  But again how long till I can have a life?  I wish my cardiologist realized the coronation between the two. Low BPM and high BP in the morning!

Any information you may have is appreciated.   Thank you very much for taking your time to try and help.  

All my best to all 
Omni 





From IPAD 2