ICD/PM

You are right Smitty, it had just been a bad day. What I said to the person whose grandfather was getting a PM/ICD was I had a 3 wire unit to increase my EF. They first put in a 2 wire unit, then 5 months later they added a 3rd wire and changed units. I asked the Doctor if Medicare would let him do that and he said sure. I don't know exactly what the criteria for the 3 wire unit is. As for getting zapped it happened to me twice not long after putting the unit in, as I have said before I would equate it to touching the spark plug on a lawn mower, After each zap they tweaked the program and I have not been zapped since Sept of 05.

1 Comments

Biventricular Criteria

by chiliman - 2008-07-31 03:07:22

There are a number of criteria used to "justify" qualifying for a 3-lead, biventricular pacemaker (CR/ICD).

The most easily defined and important requirement for insurance reimbursement and I assume Medicare coverage as well, is that your left ventricular ejection fraction is 35% or less. This is usually measured with an echocardiogram.

When I had my 2-lead pacemaker changed to a 3 lead biventricular CR/ICD, my ejection fraction had already dropped to a very low 16%! I definitely qualified.

The technology behind the bievent is such that if it works for your particular condition, it's effect is truly remarkable. It resynchronizes both ventricles to beat in unison like a healthy heart, which takes demand off of the heart to "overwork," and allows the heart to pump with much greater precision. The big benefit being that you not only feel better, but your heart has a chance to raise its ejection fraction over time to a significantly higher number, indicating that the heart is actually getting stronger.

It's been 2 months now since my changeover, and I truly am feeling better than I have in over ten years.

You know you're wired when...

You have rhythm.

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