Had PM settings changed.....

• by Janey L
• 2011-10-28 08:10:41
• Checkups & Settings
• 1456 views
• 1 comments

Hi again.
Thank you for your replies to my recent post about my return to work. I realise now I was definately not well enough to try & return to my full hours & am glad the Occupational Health Dr has stepped in & reduced my days/hours for a month & then review. My arrythmia nurse was very relieved when I told him, he was worried about me overdoing things & becoming ill again. He thinks I won't be fit enough to do my full hours until New Year!

I went to the PM clinic today (had 5 week check up last week, today's appt an urgent appt). I was having trouble walking & climbing stairs at work & the PM tech I phoned on Tuesday said to see them today.

I saw the Senior tech & he was very thorough. He downloaded all the info from the PM since last week's check up. He said he was very pleased at the response my heart has had to them increasing my resting HR from 60 to 75, to try & stop an accelerated junctional rhythm they found last week. My ventricle pacing has gone down to 1% from 6%, which they thought was falsely high due to the junctional rythm. It's good news it has gone down to 1%, as my AV node works ok. My atrial pacing has gone up from 96% to 99.8%, which they expected as my sinus node is more or less completely gone & could never reach a HR of 75 on its own anymore. So the PM is doing all the work in my atrium. I feel SO much better with my HR at 75.

The tech looked at all my rate response settings & decided to increase the speed at which my HR goes up on exertion. This is how he explained it....instead of my HR going up when I get to the top of our stairs at home (which is no good as I'm already at the top), he has changed it so that my HR starts increasing when I'm about halfway up the stairs.

I noticed the difference straight away at home.....I can climb our stairs indoors SO much better now!!

The tech said he has only increased it a bit....if he increases it too much, I'll feel unwell again. So they prefer to do it gradually & increase it again a bit more if needed. Makes sense. The big test will be if I can now climb the stairs & walk around at work better. I'll find out on Monday!

The tech has left my upper rate at 130, just altered the speed at which my HR increases on exertion. I've forgotten the technical term he used for it!

Very pleased I saw them today. PM has been in 6 weeks now.

Got to try & take things day by day & not overdo it, after my "disaster" going back to work last Monday. I've got a month of reduced days/hours...then Occ Health Dr at work will review again.

Thank you so much for all your support & encouragement, it means a lot & helps me get through.

Best wishes
Janey