Icd causing palpitations?

I had my second ICD change last year.

I just feel as though since it has happened I've just had problems with it since.

My second ICD was so good it lasted nearly 7 years and I had no problems at all.

Anyway.  Since having it changed I was really ill. And they couldn't figure out if it could be Covid or an actual infection from the ICD.

Then after a couple of months later my ICD started beeping randomly in the morning.  I had to get it checked and they said it looked like one of the leads had come loose. But as I didnt use this lead it didnt matter. My ICD has two leads. So they switched off the ICD from using the lead.

I'm not sure how long this has been going on.

But a few times in the evenings I found that I was getting palpitations.  It would last a few seconds and feels like a lead was pacing.  It would start suddenly and then suddenly stop.

I've noticed this a few times.

Then I noticed it two nights ago.  I made a note of the time. It was 23.50.

The next night at exactly 23.50. The same sensation occurred. I think it lasted less time yesterday by a couple of seconds.

Now I'm wondering if this has been happening every night for months but I just haven't noticed it.

I'm going to ring my team on Monday and I'm gonna stay up tonight to see if this happens again.

But has something similar happened to anyone here before and do you know why it could be doing this.

It just seems too much of a coincidence that it happened two night in a row. I've noticed a few times previously again always late at night but had just brushed it off.

 


4 Comments

palpitations

by AgentX86 - 2021-01-02 18:37:49

Yes, this is a common tread here. Pacemakes have a self test function that tests the PM and capture voltage (how much charge  is needed to cause a full beat. This bothers many people. It can be set to a different time  or disabled completely.

Device Self-test

by Persephone - 2021-01-02 18:56:29

Hi Nakhan, I hope you don't keep yourself up to check for your device's self-test tonight. Get some sleep. It sounds like you have enough data to be reasonably sure what is going on, and your doc can confirm next week. I guess they assumed you would (and should?) be sleeping at midnight and wouldn't notice the self-test.

Device self test

by AgentX86 - 2021-01-02 19:10:47

The self test isn't only to test itself and leads. It's intended as a self calibration to adjust the capture voltage dynamically. It would be good to do this but it's not worth losing sleep over (pun intended). My EP had it turned off at the first hint of trouble, saying that it really was more trouble than it was worth.

Thanks

by nakhan - 2021-01-02 19:40:25

Ok.

Thanks for your answers . Its really reassuring I hadn't noticed it before with my previous ICD.

It's just a shock everytime it happens and I can feel my adrenaline rushing because I'm worried my heart is going into an arrhythmia. 

It's only 10 minutes more now anyway.

I'm not usually up this late but with New Years and the holidays was up late for a couple of days.

You know you're wired when...

You run like the bionic man.

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