Heart fluttering at the exact same time everyday

Hello everyone, I recently got a pacemaker about a week ago for my heart stopping causing me to pass out, and I've been feeling a flutter in my heart at 11:42pm everyday. Should I be concerned ? Have you guys felt this too? 

Thank you so much everyone for helping me feel better about my daily flutter at the same time each each evening. It was so helpful in such a lonely COVID Time. I have felt so sad with my pacemaker and although grateful for science, I seem to be crying everyday you see I regret not to have asked for a second opinion. I had no health problems except passing out. Eight years ago I passed out on a Summer afternoon after having a Dejavu moment.  and they said it was dehydration. Then it happened 6 yrs later same thing and I saw a neurologist he said it was syncope vasel vagal nerve. Then the Dejavu happened closer 4yrs then 3 yrs and 2 and 1 and 6 months and 2 months currently in September. I would loose conscious for maybe 3 min. And after I felt so tired and sleepy and week. Felt like my tongue was pulled back. I am 48 and neuro referred me to Cardio. In April 2020 had episode then neuro referred me to wear A heart holter for 48 hours. It came back with abnormal supraventrical bpm 69/ 100. No one called me from Kaiser so continued working virtual work until I got another one Oct. 16 2020 the cardio told me to place a Lupe recorder in Hope's of catching problem. Just 2 weeks  had passed when I got another episode after dinner..all with Dejavu feeling and out. I went To ER because I felt really odd from my body. They released me. DOC. said your so healthy and your heart is 73 so need to follow up with neuro. Got home got another one lying down watching news. I pressed my heart monitor during episode at ER no one saw and episode lying down and episode after dinner..all just hours apart.  The Cardio leaves me a message. On my phone last week and says Hi I am Dr. T and your heart stopped twice for 17 sec. And 15  get to ER quickly. .  I heard and panicked. Cried and my family was scared with Covid # s high and scared with no other info..if anyone has any advice on how to get through this difficult time I'd greatly appreciate it. 

6 Comments

Ask your clinic if there are regular checks at this hour, every night ?

by Gemita - 2020-12-23 03:25:00

Hello,

Since your flutter is occurring at the same time each night (11.42 pm), it would seem to me to be caused by a remote, automatic pacemaker check or some sort of maintenance being carried out at this time.  Only your pacing clinic can confirm what is scheduled to occur at 11.42 pm each night, so I would ask them.  I would also keep a diary note of all your symptoms to discuss with them.  If it is waking you, you could ask for any potential remote interrogation to be done at a different time each day although you may need to be within range of your pacemaker transmission monitor for this to be done.

When I was having nightly automatic remote downloads transmitted to my clinic I experienced weird chest symptoms too.  At the time I thought these were due to my arrhythmias but they were clearly related to my pacemaker interrogation 

Sounds like the time for PM self-calibration

by crustyg - 2020-12-23 05:19:46

Many PMs will recheck their pacing output settings every day and some patients can feel this.  That's probably what's going on here.

If I'm correct, you have two choices: ask your EP-techs to make this later in the night, OR, ask them to disable this function.

We've had quite a few contributors here posting about trouble with this (but many more PM patients never notice it).  And some lucky people don't have automatic self-calibration - although there's a downside to this too.

Best wishes.

Like clockwork

by Persephone - 2020-12-23 12:10:44

Hi 52816MN - I also experience this every night and could almost set my clock to it.  Now that we're on standard time in the US, it occurs when I'm usually still awake, which I prefer.  During daylight savings time it occurs one hour later, around the same time as yours, which I find somewhat disruptive to sleep.  You can request the timing adjustment, as others have pointed out.

Sleep

by Persephone - 2020-12-23 13:48:11

After getting quite used to the self-check, I find it almost comforting in a way - a signal that the device is working away.  However, I don't welcome it when trying to get to sleep.  It's only been about a week for you, and likely getting to sleep and staying asleep are still a bit different from your normal, but things will settle down over time and you will become more comfortable.  Best wishes to you for a smooth recovery.

Disturbed sleep

by IAN MC - 2020-12-23 15:05:24

I never got used to the self-check , which in my case was set at 11.30 pm so , rather than changing the time, I asked for it to be turned off which they happily did.

No more unpleasant heart fluttering just as I was falling asleep  .. a good result !

i believe that it  checks things like the pacing voltage and can actually make minor changes to the settings often to optimise battery life but is obviously not essential.

Best of luck

Ian

 

Device Self-check

by amanda_shanti - 2020-12-25 03:40:53

I had the same device brand as yours, Biotronik. The fluttering feeling may cause by the "self-check" like the other members also said. I have my self checking time set to 2am, so that I won't feel it as I normally fall asleep before that time.

You may check with your doctor/pacemaker tech person, if it's indeed caused by the device self check, you may consider to ask them to change the checking time.

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