Sensation or quasi-pain when paced
I have had my pacemaker for a little over 5 months now. It has been excellent, base rate of 60, solved my low H/R and pauses at night, and generally everything is fine. However, there are times when I can feel a sensation or even a minor sharp pain when it is is pacing as as a result of a PVC. I admit I am over sensitive to H/R issues and ectopics as I also have very occasional Afib. But it is odd to feel this...sensation...when it is pacing the ventricle. It sometimes is a a quick pain, sometimes just a kind of sensation. The pain lasts a milli-second, the sensation sometimes a few seconds. And then it goes away. It does make me anxious and so I am coping with it. Does anyone else have this kind of feeling when the pacemaker is involved? (I also realize some of this may just be ectopic beats, which the pacemaker has been helpful in addressing although doesn't solve.)
4 Comments
Ectopic beats
by Rch - 2023-04-15 02:09:29
Ectopic beats like PACs or PVCs would feel the same as before your PM implant. It's a quick jerk or thud in the chest or upper abdomen. Rarely any pain associated with it. But the ventricular pacing that you feel for a few seconds might be couplets or triplets or ventricular capture by the PM to fill in the pauses. However if you feel the ventricular pacing lasting for about a minute or so, they could be automatic ventricular capture threshold tests which are run daily at a prespecified time, every 21 hrs in BS Accolade for me. But the twinge of pain you experience with ectopic beats is atypical and you should discuss with your provider. Hope you will get an answer for this annoying symptom.
Ventricular pacing
by Penguin - 2023-04-15 02:56:02
V.pacing produces what I'd describe as a 'prickly' feeling. The prickles can feel sharp and produce a shock like sensation particularly if the voltage is too high. You say that your PM was implanted 5 months ago. Could you ask the techs to look into the voltage being applied to your ventricle? Often this is too high after implant and needs to be adjusted down.
Why do you think that you are being overly sensitive or anxious - v.pacing activation shouldn't cause pain no matter how momentary. I'm concerned that you describe this as 'quasi-pain'. That sounds like somebody else's suggestion? Should you really adopt derrogatory descriptions of your experiences / feelings and accept that occasional AF is palmed off as 'occasional' and therefore unimportant? I don't think so.
Sensations….
by jmc43 - 2023-04-15 08:55:29
Thanks much for the replies, very helpful. I think the description as a 'prickly' feeling that produces a shock like sensation is probably much better than my attempt, and my use of the word 'quasi-pain'. I struggled with how to describe it because I wasn't sure it was really pain. It is something I did not have before the PM was implanted so it is somehow related. I will check with the techs around voltage and so on. I have anxiety anyway, and so I guess the hyper sensitivity is not unusual. It is getting better. I should add that I never experience any of this when I am very physically active (pickle ball, golf, hiking) or involved in something like dinner with friends.
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Ask your pacemaker tech or cardiologist
by Lavender - 2023-04-14 21:49:47
Might be helped with a setting in the pacemaker. If it's PVCs that doesn't sound like how mine feel. Mine are like a strong bubble/missed beat. Not painful. I do think we tend do develop hyper sensitivity and more anxiety when we have had a pacemaker put in. At least for a while.