When Do I feel Better?

I've always had a slow heart beat.  It was in the mid-40's and then as I got older it started to slip into the 30's.  That's when they convinced me to go with a pace maker, even though I didn't feel bad or exhibit symptoms.  The device was impalnted Friday (4 days ago), and I feel worse now than before the surgery.  It's hard to describe the feeling, but I just don't feel right.  At times I feel great and then I feel sluggish as if I'm sick.  I'm wondering if I'm expecting too much too soon.  Does it take a while before you get used to the new normal?  I notice my blood pressure is really high now and I wonder if there's some connection with my new device and how I feel.

4 Comments

High blood pressure

by Gemita - 2020-08-04 20:23:56

My best advice is to speak to your doctors about your high blood pressure which may need treating.  High blood pressure can cause many unwanted symptoms and can be dangerous.

The other point I would like to make is that with a higher rate of pacing, this can in fact cause higher blood pressure for some of us.  It doesn't for me, but I have read that others have not been so fortunate.  Also your doctors may want to check whether your pacemaker is functioning as it should and whether there are any signs of arrhythmias which may be triggering blood pressure changes.

It took me around 3 months for my heart to get used to pacing and for things to settle down.  We all have different recovery times depending on our heart condition being treated and other health conditions, but the sooner your doctor knows about your high blood pressure, the better.  Good luck

Could’ be your not use to it

by PacedNRunning - 2020-08-05 01:29:48

Hi. So since you didn't have symptoms from being bradycardic and got a PM, It could be the Lower rate limit is too high for you. I have a PM but for heart block and I'm also bradycardiac but not symptomatic so they allowed my lower rate limit to be 45bpm vs the standard 60. At 60, I felt like my heart was straining all day.  So see if they can lower it for you since your body was use to running slower.  

New pacemaker

by AgentX86 - 2020-08-05 13:30:24

High blood pressure rarely has any symptoms until it gets crazy high (mine was once 260/200 an other than feeling the Afib, I felt ok). Do you have chonotropic incompetence to go along with your Bradycardia?

You may need some settings changed to get your pacemaker to react as needed.

I’m right there with you

by Jgwin - 2020-08-08 05:18:51

I'm a week in now also and don't really know how to feel. I'm almost done with the antibiotics and on a BP med for the first time. I already had to cut the BP pill in half after it was lowering it to much. I to just don't know how to feel. I was told by the PM rep that I was set to not go under 60, but moving around puts me in the 80-90 range. I'm not out of breath, but it's an odd feeling, also my sinuses are completely jacked so I can't realy breathe right and that's not helping. I can't offer answers, but can say that from what I can tell it's normal to not know what "feeling right" is at the moment.

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