the pulse is came back!

Hi Everyone,
I have a PM SIGMA SVDD 303 for about 6 month, and I am 100% depend on it. today when I was at the PM clinic, the technician told me that she can see a good Sinus pulse (I guess for my lower part of the heart), I asked how long was like that, she said we dont know. I asked if my PM is on demand why my heart has been pased for more than 99% of the time, she said because it wont let your pulse get through. I am looking at my ECG right now and my pulses look much better than what the PM makes. So she called my Dr. and asked if she should do any changes, he answered no, leave it alone.
Is there any posibility that my heart block got fixed? is there any way to test it?
Is there any way to pace the heart whenever it needs it?
thanks for any help or suggestion.
Rob

4 Comments

So Is Mine

by Vicki - 2007-09-24 07:09:28

Hi Rob, I had a pacemaker put in a little over 2 months ago for complete heart block. Approx 10 days later I went to EP for incision check and he told me heart block was gone and my pacer had been used less than 1% of the time. Last week I went for my first pm check with the St. Jude rep. Same thing...heart block is gone--pacer only used less than 1% of the time. No one can tell me why it went away but they are saying that if I had it once I could have it again and the PM will be there to take care of the problem. I was told that the PM is just sitting there doing nothing and will be that way until it is needed.

Take care,
Vicki

Why mine is different

by Robshahamat - 2007-09-24 09:09:17

Thats exactly my point, if the heart block is gone for me , even temporary, why my pacemaker is pacing all the time? is it because the type of the pacemaker (Single lead) that I am using? or there is a setting for that to make it on demand?

Please help.
Rob

Wish I had more answers for you

by Vicki - 2007-09-24 10:09:19

Rob, wish I could help more but I am a newbie with all this too. Hopefully you will get some answers from some others here who know more then me. Mine is a dual lead on demand St. Jude pacemaker. The low setting is 50 and the high is 100. Apparently it has a sensing device that shuts it off if my heartbeat is above 50. Don't know if having a single lead vs double has anything to do with your problem. Hoping some others come to your rescue. If I were you I would call my cardiologist or EP first thing in the morning to find out why this is happening. Good luck. I know this is so frustrating, confusing and scary.
Vicki

Different

by SMITTY - 2007-09-25 12:09:43

Rob,

There are a couple of ifs in answers to your question.

1- If your pacemaker is truly working all the time (90% or above) then you heart block is not gone. Your PM has an upper and lower limit setting. Your PM will come on line to help you heart only if:
A – Your hearts natural pacemaker is not sending any impulse to make your heart beat, or if the impulses from your heart’s natural PM is not sending a signal strong enough to give you a complete heart beat.
B – You heart rate is so irregular, that although you have some natural hart beats, they are not enough and your PM is filling the gaps.
C – Whoever told you your PM was working all the time didn’t really know what they were talking about or they were just trying to impress upon you how important the doctor, his staff and your pacemaker were to you. (Yes I’m cynical and refuse to believe every thing I’m told about pacemakers. My cynicism came into being after I was lied to about mine for some 5 years.)

One other thing I will mention. Heart block can come and go. There are a number of reasons for this and I’m working on a report on that right now, actually I’m trying to reduce about 10 pages of data on this subject to something appropriate for this forum. One of the reasons it can come and go is the medications we take or quit taking. Three I can recall off hand, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers and Amidarone can cause various degrees of heart block and make a PM necessary. There are also some illnesses that can cause HB. But that is all I have time for right now.

Hope this helps a little,

Smitty

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