undecided

Hi! I'm new to the site. I'm 87 and trying to decide whether or not to get a pacemaker. My heart rate is usually in the 50's and I'm tired a lot - doing less and less. I rarely sleep through the night. I have high blood pressure and know that some of my medications may also cause me to feel tired and sometimes dizzy and faint. I'm worried about complications and how it feels to live with a pacemaker. It would be a blessing if some of the pacemakers could help me with your experience - especially any older pacers. Heba

5 Comments

And this might help too...

by Pookie - 2009-05-08 01:05:45

an article I found from the Medtronics website:

Living With Your Pacemaker


Now that you have a pacemaker (or soon may get one), you may be wondering why you need one and how a pacemaker works. Your artificial pacemaker is a modern marvel; it's medical science's solution to the electrical problems of a slow or irregular heartbeat. But before you can understand how your pacemaker works, you first need to know a little about your heart. Basically, your heart is a pump made of special muscle. It pumps blood to all your body's cells. This is vital, because the blood carries oxygen and nourishment to keep your cells alive and healthy.

Your heart beats (pumps blood) because special cells in your heart (the heart's natural pacemaker, called the sinus node) produce electrical impulses. These cause your heart to contract and pump blood. The impulses travel from the pacemaker cells down certain electrical paths in the muscle walls, causing a contraction. As long as the electrical impulses flow down your heart's walls at regular intervals, your heart pumps at a rhythmic pace. Sometimes, though, something happens to interfere with how the electrical impulses of your heart's natural pacemaker are made or flow down your heart. When this occurs, the natural pacemaker can't do its job as well as it needs to.

Problems that change the heart rhythm include:

A complete block of the heart's electrical pathway
A slow beat
An irregular rhythm

If you have a slow and often irregular heartbeat — or if your heartbeat is sometimes normal and sometimes too fast or too slow — blood isn't pumped around your body well. In that case your doctor may recommend an artificial pacemaker. A pacemaker will make your heart beat more regularly. That will help ensure that enough oxygen and nourishment gets to your body's cells. An artificial pacemaker system has two parts: a generator and wires (leads).

The pacemaker generator is a small battery-powered unit. It produces the electrical impulses that start your heartbeat. The generator is implanted under your skin through a small incision. The generator is connected to your heart through tiny wires that are implanted at the same time. The impulses flow through these leads to your heart and are timed to flow at regular intervals just as impulses from your heart's natural pacemaker would.

Modern pacemakers last much longer than earlier models. As with any electronic device, your artificial pacemaker will require some care. The batteries, for example, will wear down over time and the pacemaker will need to be replaced. This is a minor surgical procedure. Your healthcare provider can explain it to you. (I personally don't know if I agree with these 2 last statements!!)

Most pacemakers work only when they're needed. They're called demand pacemakers. Demand pacemakers have a sensing device that shuts them off if the heartbeat is above a certain rate. When the heart is beating slower than the pacemaker rate, the sensing device turns the pacemaker on again. In this way, a demand pacemaker works something like a thermostat. The difference is that instead of working according to temperature, it works according to your heart rate.

As the batteries wear down, your pacemaker will slow down, but it won't stop right away. Using a special analyzer, your doctor can detect the first warning that the batteries are running down. This can be done before you can detect any changes yourself. A sudden, major slowing down of your heart rate, which you may detect, probably indicates a more serious problem. If that occurs, call your doctor.

Pookie

Pacemaker Or Not...

by Pookie - 2009-05-08 01:05:56

Welcome Heba.

My name is Pookie. I'm a 47 year old female from Nova Scotia, Canada and I've had my pacer since I was 42.

The reason I received my pacer was for a number of issues, mainly my heart rate (HR) was always below 60 during the day and went down into the low 30s at night. I found this out by wearing a Holter Monitor for 24 hrs. Any heart rate that is below 60 is considered to be Bradycardia. I was also told I have Sick Sinus Syndrome and Heart Block.

Prior to receiving my pacer, I was always tired and when I look back over my life, even back into my teens, I remember always feeling tired, I thought that was just me and never mentioned it to anyone. Also, for about a year prior to my pacer I was having some lightheadedness, but I thought, yet again, it was just me and perhaps my sugar was low, so I'd pop a sugar candy...which, by the way, didn't get rid of the lightheadedness. Then this lightheadedness decided to stay permanently and then it decided to turn into dizziness. Why I mention this, is because, when I finally met with the Cardiologist, he promised me that I would feel SO much better, not tired, not dizzy, etc. Unfortunately, that did NOT happen for me. I am still profoundedly exhausted, and dizzy 24/7, but I now know that these are both attributed to another medical issue I have.

So...back to the decision of getting a pacer or not; I am very glad I have mine now. It gives me peace of mind knowing my heart will never go below 60.

I was not the norm when it came to surgery however...my story is very long, but in the end I had to have 5 operations for this one pacer. I went thru a terrible time for the first 2 years both physically and mentally, but am much much better now.

Just keep in mind, like the others above me mentioned, that there is NO guarantee that a pacer will solve your problems. Perhaps you should get a 2nd opinion?

My grand aunt, who is 82, just received one before Xmas and had absolutely no problems with the surgery or the recovery...however, like me, she has felt no improvement. However, her brother, my grandfather, had one and he said it was the best thing since sliced bread!!!

It's a big decision to make, so if you have the time, I'd suggest you research it to death. One thing to consider if you go ahead with it is...do you have someone to stay with you for a few days to help out while you're recovering? Another is...some doctors put you to sleep for the surgery, while others choose just a local. (I was completely knocked out for all of mine).

Well, we all have our different opinions and suggestions, but in the end the ball is in your court. I am glad, however, that you have found this wonderful support group as the members here have supported me every step of the way.

Good luck & keep us posted.

Pookie

hmmm.

by Angelie - 2009-05-08 10:05:53

87 years young.......God bless you.

What does your doctor say about you getting a pacemaker? Are your health care professionals suggesting that you get a pacemaker?
You have a lot of things going on. I am not an "older pacer". In fact, I'm 33, but I have lots of experience with older folks as I used to be a nurse aide. Also, I believe that with heart problems, age doesn't seem to matter much because I've probably been on all of the drugs that you're currently taking, and despite my age, have most likely felt similar ailments. LOL!
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard, "but you're SO young", I'd be a millionaire. And if I could only get back the many days I've spent feeling weak, tired, and sick of being a 20 year old youthful spirit trapped in a 80 year old body.
It would interesting to know exactly what drugs you're taking for your hypertension, because as you said, medications can be a huge factor in how you're feeling. A lot of blood pressure meds can make you weak, tired, and bradycardic. Maybe experiment with other medications or dosages before resorting to pacemaker implant.
A heart rate in the 50's is not too terribly bad, considering a lot of us here have had heart rates in the 30's and 40's. Regardless, a waking heart rate of 50 can make you listless, and who knows what it goes down to while you're sleeping. Have you ever worn a holter heart rate monitor? That would definitely help diagnose any heart rhythm problems.
If a pacemaker is what you end up getting, your heart rate will definitely not ever go down in the 50's again. It will set at a rate that's appropriate for you, and should not ever go below that rate that they set.
The procedure isn't that bad, and you have some restrictions afterwards, but only for a few weeks. Most people get back to what they were doing, within reason, in a couple of months- depending on each person and other health problems that they may or may not have. Explore this website, and you'll learn a lot. Type any key word in the Search window and you'll find every post relating to that word.
I am thankful for my pacemaker. I sleep well at night knowing that my heart rate won't ever fall below the set rate, and I can be as active as I want to be. Some days, I'm still tired....but everyone gets tired regardless if they have a device or not.

Hope this helps you out some, and welcome.

Angelie

Hope This Helps

by ppt - 2009-05-08 10:05:58

My PM was implanted at age 65. For me it has not been easy but my situation seems to be rare. My godmother had a PM implanted at 80 and she never looked back. It will all depend upon your Dr's recommendation, your decision, and your body. We are all different. Good luck with your decision.

Getting A Pacemaker

by SMITTY - 2009-05-08 11:05:46


Hello Heba,

Welcome to the Pacemaker Club.

I'm seven years younger than you but I have had a pacemaker for nine years. I can't really answer your questions, other than telling you about some of my experiences and what I've seen other people say about their pacemaker.

First, let me tell you a pacemaker is a gift from God for many and it is an instrument of the devil for some. What your experience will be depends on why you are getting a PM, the expertise of the doctor doing the implanting and a lot of luck. For me the PM surgery was nothing. I've had tooth extractions that were much worse. I've also seen some say here that their PM surgery was a trip through hell. I will say that regardless of what you may be told there are no 100% guarantees of success.

When I start talking about the probability of success or failure of getting a PM I always think of the carnival hawker who keeps touting the people to come play his game of chance with "you pay your money and you take your chances." Admittedly, the chance of success from getting a PM is an infinite amount greater than success from playing a carnival game, but as I said there is no 100% guarantee of success.

I am going to guess that you are getting a PM to speed up your heart rate. I also guess that the low HR is suspected of being the cause of your feeling tired, sometimes dizzy and faint. It is very possible for a PM to solve your problems if they are all caused by the low HR. However, you mention some of your medications may be causing some, or all, of your problems. I know for a fact there some medications (especially some of those that we take for high blood pressure) that make a person feel almost as badly as when they have the flu, except there will be no pain or fever. I know I have taken some that made me feel lifeless, or to be more exact totally useless. To go with that those same medications caused my heart rate to be very low, but of course my PM prevents it from going below 70 most of the time. If the medicines are causing your tiredness, the PM is not going to do much, if anything, for that. If the low HR is the cause of dizzy or feeling faint, again a PM could very well take care of those issues.

The recovery period for a youngster like you will probably be about two to four weeks and the pain level should not be greater than that which can be relieved with ibuprofen or Tylenol. There will be some restriction on arm movement for a few days to a couple of weeks, but again it should just be restriction and not immobility. The amount of restriction and time element will have to be answered by your doctor.

After you get the PM you will probably have to return in a few weeks for a PM checkup. This when they check to see if settings on PM are the optimum for you and if they think changes in the setting are in order they can be made at that time. The PM checkup is about like getting an ECG. Except at one point they put a magnet or some such device over your PM so that adjustments can be made to settings if necessary. All of this is completely painless and take15 to30 minutes. These checkups become a way of life for most of us. I have them every three months, although I see where some people have them more or less frequently. Frequency of your checkups will be determined by your doctor. Also, I mentioned the PM settings. The initial settings are not always the best for a particular person and it sometimes takes several tries to get what is best for a person, Several attempts to get the best settings do not often happen, but when they do there is nothing unusual about it. Sometimes it is just more difficult to get the best settings for a particular person.

One other thing, always remember that you are the one that knows best if your PM is doing what it was presented as being able to do. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way right off, or you may have some new pains that can be attributed to the PM. Your doctor will not know anything about these incidents unless you tell him. Sometimes we have to tell the doctor more than once that we are having some problem. So, don't be shy when it comes to sounding off about a problem you have, or think you have, from your PM.

As time goes by, I'm sure you will have additional questions about the PM. You can contact any of us that reply to your messages by a Private Message or you can email me at bentoniams@msn.com.

I wish you the best,

Smitty

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