Cell phone and Fitbit

Funny feeling

by piglet22 - 2024-10-11 03:52:03

Hello 

I'm afraid I can't help with whatever sensation you are getting.It could be anything to do with the surgery.

The pacemaker can induce sensations in certain modes, but it's unlikely to be the case. In circumstances where the battery gets very low, it can go into a safe mode.

I experienced low battery some years ago and that produced a distinct nearby muscle twitch in sync with my pulse.It's sensible to ask your clinical team.

As for the phone and Fitbit, it's just a case of being careful but not fearful. The environment is full of phone and Bluetooth type radio energy, but few if any problems get reported.

I've yet to hear of anyone who has proven problems of pacemaker malfunction in domestic situations. The phone I'm writing this on is close to my chest, Bluetooth is turned on. I'm more concerned about the magnets in the phone case than the radio emissions.

There's a lot of information available generally on hazards, your team might have a list, or the PM manufacturer might publish advice.

In nearly 20 years, I've not had a problem with the device other than the low battery experience.

Good luck 

Hi! 👋🏼

by Lavender - 2024-10-11 08:53:21

An iphone 14 hasn't bothered me even when I type on it or hold it to either ear. I certainly wouldn't lay it on my chest though. It's probably five to six inches from my pacemaker. I don't have a fitbit. 

Hi response and good info

by PSUCW2024 - 2024-10-11 09:58:58

Appreciate the fast response by both of you.  Sure most of this is just me becoming used to the new buddy in my upper chest. With everyone using cell phones for everything I know they have to work around the PM I just was not expecting these off and on feelings. Maybe after a few more weeks it will be better. I still have swelling in the pocket area from a hematoma so that may be causing more of the issue than the devices. 

interferences

by piglet22 - 2024-10-11 11:03:22

I don:t see what model you have, but many come with Bluetooth as standard in the device.

If you have a bedside monitor, that will have Bluetooth as well, and GSM cellular.

It's best to think of what you can do rather than what you can't.

WiFi routers, smart devices like lamps won't affect your device. Power of transmissions are regulated, and data or settings are safely encrypted.

Stuff that sparks, arcs like welding are best avoided and most will be in industrial situations.

Most other things like microwave ovens and inductive hobs have been discussed before and are generally safe to use. The jury might be out on electronic muscle stimulators.

Magnets are best avoided at close distance, and even if you do manage to activate the PM magnetic switch, it might only drop the set rate and is temporary. I'm not brave enough to try it out outside a clinical setting, but take the magnet away and normal function is restored.

Good luck

Tightness too after storm prep

by PSUCW2024 - 2024-10-11 15:35:55

Thanks again for the added comments as I said I am new to the PM and trying to adapt. I have a biotronics Amvia edgeDR-T dual chamber  I had a TvAR a month earlier.

Since this Tuesday was my four weeks and living in Tampa we had to prepare for the storm so I was more active last few days than I have been. Today I am sore in my chest and have tightness in both my shoulder areas.
just wondering if others recall that in the early days after placement. 

early soreness

by Tracey_E - 2024-10-11 16:53:06

As I got back to activity and started moving more- or prepping for a storm- I would get new aches and pains. This is new scar tissue being stirred up. We also get odd feelings as the nerves knit back together, zinging or stinging feelings. Most of it is perfectly normal. Things to watch for are new swelling, fever, red streaks, oozing. The rest is just your body getting used to having a piece of metal in there. 

While it is possible for a fitbit or iphone to cause issues if too close, it's unlikely. New pacers are well shielded. I've been known to tuck my iphone in my sports bra right over my pacer while on a run. I've been paced for 30 years so am well past the point where I walk on eggshells with it. I truly rarely give it a thought or avoid anything that might interfere. 

Magnets won't hurt us. That's what's in the puck they use when they interrogate the pacer. If it has any effect at all, it will be to put it in test mode until the source of interference is gone. If something ever feels odd, move away from it. 

We're All Different

by Grateful Heart - 2024-10-14 15:09:03

If I hold a wireless phone to my left ear, I sometimes feel a vibration/ buzzing in my chest from the CRT-D so I always try to hold it on the right side.

Just last week at the gym I was using a new waist cellphone belt.  Since I'm aware of the issue I always wear my cellphone on the right side.  Suddenly I felt the same vibration/ buzzing feeling and when I checked my cellphone, it had migrated over to my left side but still a good 12 inches away from my device. 

One of my leads is unipolar after a lead revision and they tend to be more sensitive than a bipolar lead so I attribute the interference to that lead.

Grateful Heart 

Thanks for support and comments.

by PSUCW2024 - 2024-10-14 17:13:14

Appreciate everyone comments as they are helpful. The storm sparred us from significant damage and we are almost cleaned up at my house and have power so that is good news all around.
I definitely feel I need to be further away than the six inches they warn about. I can feel it in my chest when I type on the phone at arms length.  When others pass by with their phones I tend to feel it also but again I am new to pacing and may be imagining things for awhile. 

thanks 

Feeling the vibes

by PaceCahr - 2024-10-15 23:02:10

Hi PSUCW, 

a little late to the comment stream, but your most recent response is important: 

-- You are feeling things when others are near -- 

That's important, because that means *you* are sensitive to the radio wave - at least your bodies electrical system is.  I can grok this, because I am far more sensitive to analog radio waves than many people. In the olde olde days of the original flip phone mobile handsets - I could literally feel heat up the side of my head from where the antenna on those phones rested. The batteries got hot too, but this was a linear line above my ear where the antennas stuck up.

Because of this, I really tried to use the phone as little as possible to make calls - which is what those phones did. This was long before feature phones and smart phones, and long before WiFi existed. 

I also worked with a group doing the very early development in the wireless networking that turned into wifi, and I definitely could also "feel" the radient energy coming off those antennas especially if my head was close to the antennas.  

That's kind of the key: being close to the radio-power radiating antenna. 

That being said - I am aware of how my body reacted to RF  braodcast energy long before I got my AICD.

In the first couple of months after my "installation" - I would definitely feel very funny sitting at my desk using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse in a good sitting posture with an iMac. (the computer is in the screen, not under the desk).  These weird feeling didn't happen using a latop at arms length (elbow straight) without external keyboard/mouse/etc. 

One day, I was using a pair of bose bluetooth speakers and was in a zoom meeting. The audio started breaking up terribly, and I suddenly felt that same "break-up sensation" in my chest where the leads were trying to knit into place. I powered off the headphones and backed away from the computer, and it went away, but that kinda freaked me out.  

I haven't retried those headphones again since. :)    

But now (5 months out from my install) I can hunch over a bluetooth keyboard and only piss off the incision by letting my implant shoulder squeeze the incision space. I no longer sense the radio from the kepyboard/mice, but can sometimes sense it from a cellphone. 

I keep the mobile phone screen facing me no matter where the phone is being held near my body - as most phones have the antennas on the backside. 

But every now and then, I'll have a start up of some palpatations that seem to coincide with bad/slow wifi connectivity, and I'm guessing that there is an interfering radio signal that is causing the issue for the wifi, that is strong enough that my body tissues are sensing it, like it did back in Ye Olde Flip Phone Mobile days. 

It helps that I am a radio enthusiast (amateur, CB, commercial broadcast) and have had vendors at work blame their equipment failures on SunSpots. RF is really everywhere, and some people (and devices) are more sensitive to the noise version than others. 

Don't let anyone tell you what your body may or may not react to. It's your lived experience, and hopefully as the leads knit in, and things heal, those areas will become less sensitive to RF - which can be both "wanted" signal as well literally crud RF noise from a device that is failing and generating a lot of electrical noise in the area.  

I'm wishing you the best - and being able to listen to what your body tells you is great! But also can really piss off your doctors when you tell them things that they really don't want to hear.