weid feeling after interogation

Hi all
I had my 2 month post PM implant check and interogation yesterday. All was well and they tweaked a couple of minor settings. Later that day and again in the eve. I felt my heart making a weird thudding feeling. It was like when they make your PM work during interogation. It felt very strange and don't know what to make of it. Could it be my PM was doing it's thing when I felt this. Any thoughts?
Thanks from Howard

3 Comments

Feeling your pacer pace

by Tracie H - 2010-05-13 07:05:53

I was told by a cardiologist in Shanghai that some people (me included) may feel their pacer pace because the lead may lean up against the vagal nerve. In my case, my heart is a little off center and the lead is right up against the nerve. I feel it pace each and every time. At first it freaked me out, but now I think, "Thank God it's working otherwise I'd be on the ground right now!" Then I think, "Wow! I could be dead right now!" I'm not saying this is the case for you - only your xrays would verify it - but it's something to consider.
:)

Tracie

Thanks Renee, Smitty and Tracie H

by The Fish - 2010-05-13 11:05:58

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas. Much appreciated. It did not happen today so I will just wait and see I guess. If anything more comes of this I will post to keep everyone updated in case someone else could use the info.

Maybe This Will Give You Ideas

by SMITTY - 2010-05-13 12:05:31

Hey Howard,

I can't go outside and play this morning because my gyroscope is not working as it should and I am at high risk of falling on my butt if I try to move around. About all I can safely do is sit here and annoy people. So I guess you can say you get to be my next victim.

Yes I have some thoughts on your question. I say thoughts but it is really guesses more than anything and is mostly based on my experience over the years.

First you should not feel your pacemaker doing its work any more than you felt your heart beating before you got a pacemaker. The electrical impulse from that pacemaker is very weak and is intended only to make one or more heart chambers contract.

Your heart beat is supposed to be the result of a very rigid sequence of events. Blood passes from one chamber to another, to another, to another. As the blood leaves one chamber and goes to the next it passes through valves. Our heart's natural pacemaker has the timing down pat so that it is a smooth and painless transition almost every time. However, the timing of the man made pacemaker which is supposed to mimic the hearts natural pacemaker can be off a microsecond and this can cause an uncomfortable feeling. If the timing on the pacemaker is not perfect it can cause a heart chamber to start contracting and this starts blood flow to start from one chamber to another before it should. This puts back pressure on the valve(s) and we may feel that as hard heart beats or as in my case most of the time slight pain in the middle of my chest or a thumping like a hard heart beat. The most likely time for my heart's natural pacemaker and my manmade pacemaker to be out of sync is when the rate response is trying to help.

I have learned of another entry into this field of "what is going on." A few months ago I started having some V-Tach, according to the data stored by my pacemaker and downloaded during a checkup. When V-Tach occurs the ventricle starts beating fast without regard to what the other chambers of my heart may be doing and this causes things to get out of sync. This results in valves being caught in the middle just as with a pacemaker will that is firing at the wrong time. Again I get uncomfortable feelings like hard heart beats, or slight pain in the middle of my chest. Fortunately the V-Tach episodes are of short duration so my discomfort usually lasts just long enough for me to be aware of it.

Good luck,

Smitty

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