Not pacing correctly during exercise

I'm a 59 year old male and had a St Jude PM2272 pacemaker implanted 5 years ago.

I play racquetball regularly and my heart rate averages approx 140 bpm during play, pacemaker is set at max 160. During the last few weeks I noticed something was not right and started to feel slight dizziness during play. The heart rate on my watch was holding steady at around 100 bpm when it should have been 130-140. Any ideas on what may be going on?

Thank you.

2 Comments

Heart rate

by piglet22 - 2023-10-28 07:25:42

I'm no expert on the higher end of the pacing experience and never, normally, get anything much above 80 BPM.

There are other things that can go on over time that can upset the normal function of the PM.

After 18 years of normal PM usage, ectopic beats (PVCs) started up to upset things and that manifested as slow and erratic heart rates, at the lower end of the scale.

You may have a minimum rate setting of say, 60 or 70 BPM, mine is 70. Ectopics can knock that down to 40 quite easily and I was feeling dizzy and very not well.

It probably happened when I was doing some exercise like walking, but the expected higher heart rate was probably masking the defects.

When I relaxed, that was a different story. The ectopics took over, heart rate and blood pressure dropped and more than once, I did too, on the floor.

Yours might be nothing to do with ectopics or anything else and I throw this in as an example of what can go wrong.

The obvious advice is to get it checked and get reassured one way or another.

Good luck.

Extra beats

by PacedNRunning - 2023-11-03 17:33:59

 You could be having extra beats while exercising. PVC's or PAC's.  best to get a holter monitor to see what is going on since all has been going well prior. 

 

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