Just Joined the Club

I just got my pacemaker on Friday evening. I'm 37 and while I've had a history of occasionally passing out, I led a very active lifestyle (cycling through NYC traffic 14 miles every day to and from my two jobs and college), but my episodes had suddenly started to get worse and less predictable. I went into the ER, passed out on the tilt table and had a 6 second pause.

Now I'm wondering about recovery. My wound is healing very nicely (no real pain, just some tugging when I shift positions or whatever), but I find myself pretty wiped out from even moderate exercise. I went out for a walk of maybe a mile today and found myself a bit short of breath and a tiny bit faint by the time I got home. Is this normal for those of you younger pacemaker recipients?

By the way, I already love this site and love the community, and reading the experiences of people very similar to me helped me make peace with this whole thing very quickly.

4 Comments

Welcome

by MSPACER - 2011-11-21 09:11:49

Hi

You most likely need the pacemaker settings adjusted to suit your situation. The pacemaker comes with default settings, and that's probably where they are set. I'm a cyclist too, and it took numerous attempts to get the settings correct on my pacemaker. In fact, the tech just turned the rate response on a few months ago. This is my second pacemaker, and I never had the rate response turned on, but I was getting out of breath walking. Now I feel a lot better with it turned on. It may take several attempts to get the settings correct. You're probably also a little wiped out from the surgery. I'm assuming that general anesthesia was used, and that could take a while to get out of your system. Just take it slow. When you go for your one week follow-up, tell the doctor how you feel. The tech can do an exercise test where you walk around for about 3 minutes. Based on the test, it can help the tech set the rate response if you need that to be turned on.

Settings

by drashmore - 2011-11-21 10:11:12

I've had my PM for a year and have continued to have a problem. When I walk or do anything I felt like my whole body was tighting up. I never considered I was getting out of breath because it never effected my breathing. Last month the tech I had was surprised my RR wasn't turned on. She explained I wasn't getting enough oxygen to my muscles and then I realized that's been my issue all along. Now when I do anything I feel so much better. I still have to pace myself because I seem to be having a few tachy attacks. They are sending me to a EP next month. Compared to how a felt a few months ago I'm glad they turned the RR on. That's one thing I would be sure and question.

Debbie

similar situation

by bombay gal - 2011-11-22 01:11:47

Its scary, how many of us have gone through the same secnario. I had my PM for the same reason, a 15sec pause in an ER room.
Unfortunately, the techs who set the PM after surgery are not the smartest and I went through 6 month before realizing the setting were wrong, thanks to this site and Frank.
Even to this day, 2 years down the road, I have to fight to get a tech who knows what she is doing...every appt. I check and recheck...

Thanks!

by dramaticpause - 2011-11-22 02:11:20

I will definitely keep all of this in mind when I go back next week. Thanks everyone!

You know you're wired when...

You have a dymo-powered bike.

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A pacemaker completely solved my problem. In fact, it was implanted just 7 weeks ago and I ran a race today, placed first in my age group.