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Pacing out of VTor something else?
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I am brand new to this site and I got a Pacemaker/Defibrillator implanted on 11-22-11. The current settings start pacing me down at 100 bpm and paces me up at 70 bpm. Do you have any information on why a heart rate would jump from 70 to 100 while at rest? I think my heart is trying to start into VT but the pacemaker is straightening it out, but I'm unsure. Anyone else ever have this occur?
It is pacing me all the time it seems and it is very annoying and sometimes painful. I've already been zapped 8 times! 4 on each occassion and the last being yesterday morning at 3:00 AM. I'm currently at the Cleveland Clinic Cardiac Hospital and my heart rate won't drop enough to stop pacing.
Lastly, I also have Sarcoidosis in my heart (LV), but I'm wondering if anyone has exerienced anything like this with your Pacemaker/Defibrillator?
Thank you,
Ron Gatts
4 Comments
Ron:
by donr - 2012-01-08 08:01:37
You are new to the game. I think you have some terms mixed up. IF you have a PM/ICD, you should NOT feel the device PACING. That is usually a non-sensatory event. I am paced nearly 100% & never feel a thing.
Now getting ZAPPED is another issue. thathas been described to me by a friend as being liked to a kick from a mule. Now never having been kicked by a mule, I cannot attest to what it would feel like, but it is usually fatal in reality, but is a nice descriptive term implying it hurts ike Heck.
A PM has no brakes. It cannot slow the heart down, as such (or is the correct term per se?). The ICD function can reset the heart into "Normal Sinus Rhythm- (NSR) by stopping the Tachycardia or Fibrillation.
You may not realize it but it is not unusual for your heart rate to jump IMMEDIATELY from 70 to 100 while sitting & relaxed. Just hear a startling noise & it will happen. Maybe even go higher. REALLY get a scare & it can jump immediately to 180. That's the kind of event that leaves you all washed out after it's over from the sudden dose of adrenalin. You did not say what your "Normal" HR was before all this started. If you are a nutcase runner (Like two of my "Kids"), your normal HR could be as low as the 50's. Me - I was a 72 all my adult life & at 60 I feel uncomfortable & droopy.
You say that right now your PM/ID is "Pacing" you neary all the time. I will guess that w/ that uper limit set at 100, under your current state of mind your HR stays at/above 100 most of the time. It's due to a thing called anxiety. Consider what a soldier's HR is when he tinkks that the enemy is coming through the barbed wire. Or a cop w/ his weapon out about to enter a likker store where he thinks a burglar is. Well you are probably in thet state of mind, so you are carrying a higher than normal HR.
I'd tell you to relax, but you would scoff, & rightfully so. You would not be in the CC Bed were you not concerned (anxious), nor would you have written the post inspiring my response.
I'll send you a Private Msg called "Don's Primer on Anxiety." Look for it in a few minutes.
Wish you the best.
Don
I feel my pacing too.
by kathykat11 - 2012-01-08 12:01:27
Don I didn't realize what I was feeling until the pacer nurse told me I would feel the need to cough when she changed my settings in my first pacer check. I said that is what I have been talking about and she said that is when the bottom of your heart is pacing. I find it reassuring when I can feel it and it doesn't happen often now that my heart has settled down after the implant. My doctor says my heart is irritable anyway from all the surgeries it has gone through. I have had 5 mitral valve replacements over the years... enough to make anyone or anything irritable I would say. I like knowing my buried treasure is on the job and working.
Hopefuly rongatts will settle down too but he is in a good place for them to figure out what is going on if it doesn't do it on its own.
best to all,
kathykat11
Hard to say
by mrag - 2012-01-26 07:01:04
I agree with Don that you are likely inadvertently supplying misleading information. Cleveland Clinic is considered a first rate heart hospital so you should be in very good hands there. I'd ask for an extra xanax and try and relax. Some people feel some "pacing" and others don't. Some people go into the hospital for a fib and others are not even really bothered by it. I just had my ICD 'interrogated' and it report 8 "events" where my heart suddenly sped up to 165 bpm for a very short while. They say that's "normal" for me (and a reason I have the ICD in the first place.
If you have been "zapped" twice now with 4 shock "storms" you have some real issues. Ask if they were "appropriate" what the plan is (avoid amiodarone if at all possible), ask about "ablation" and in short, just keep asking questions. And while I have never been "kicked by a mule," let me assure you a shock is exactly what I imagine a "kick by a mule" would feel like. And a big, mad mule at that ;-)
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Pacer/ICD settings
by golden_snitch - 2012-01-08 05:01:10
Hi Ron!
What you have told us here does not make much sense to me. It sounds very much like your pacer/ICD settings are not right. However, if the guys at Cleveland Clinic don't know what to do, I feel that what I'm thinking is probably too simple.
First of all, why is the upper rate limit at 100 bpm? That is really low, and it doesn't surprise me that the pacer or ICD kicks in all the time. I mean, I get 100bpm when I just walk 100 metres. The ICD patients I know have upper limits for anti-tachycardia pacing and shocks set at 180bpm or so. There is one who has an upper limit of 120, but that's because she has heart failure and they don't want her weak heart to beat faster.
Secondly, a lower limit at 70bpm means that the pacer will kick in whenever your heart rate drops lower than 70bpm. Now, given the fact that most people have a heart rate at rest around 60bpm, not letting the heart rate drop below 70 ultimately leads to the pacer pacing you all the time. I don't know what your resting heart rate is, nor do I know why it needs to be not slower than 70bpm.
So, I'd question the lower and upper rate limit. However, since Cleveland Clinic has a very good reputation, I'm quite sure that the doctors there have their reasons for these settings.
One more thought: All ICD patients I know are on betablockers. Those help to lower the heart rate and thereby prevent shocks. Don't know, if you take betablockers, too, but if not, that might be something to ask the doctors about.
Best wishes
Inga