Running races and getting shocked

Has anyone had their defibrillator shock you when you are running in a race. I was in a 5k last Saturday and I didn't warm up and right after the 1/2 mile, my ICD shocked me. Right before it shocked me I had stopped because I started to feel like strange. I have had my ICD one year tomorrow and it has only shocked me twice. The first time was in February when I was chasing my dog because she had something wrong with her. I got too excited and it shocked me. The dog was checked out at the emergency vet and was ok. I stayed home. I have my ICD because I have had ventricular tachycardia in Nov. 2009 and July 2012. Both times I was running in races and ended up in ER and the paddles were used on me.
I want to keep running, but the incident last week caused me a lot of anxiety.

Let me hear of your experiences running and getting shocked.

Redrose65


3 Comments

Heart rate

by golden_snitch - 2013-08-03 06:08:15

Hi!

I tend to agree with the first comment: It could be that you need the heart rate, at which the ICD starts shocking, increased. However, you said that you had your first ventricular tachycardia episodes, before you got the ICD, when running, too. When you now have the rate at which it shocks increased, it could happen that it won't shock you out of a ventricular tachycardia. It's hard to say, if you receive the shocks because you exceed the heart rate at which the ICD starts to shock or if you really have an episode of ventricular tachycardia. The ICD report wil show. If I were you, I'd talk this through with your cardio/EP. What might also help is to do a treadmill test at your doctor's office.

Good luck!
Inga

Settings

by dad4dds - 2013-08-03 12:08:59

Talk to your Dr maybe the heart rate for a shock needs to be increased.

Good Luck

yep

by 06kj - 2013-09-19 05:09:46

Mine has shocked me during physical activity many times. Once it shocked me 5 times in a row and landed me back in the hospital. It has been reprogramed many times and finally seems to be ok with me doing intense activity, but I do not trust it still.

I have terrible anxiety when doing any sort of physical activity and I was a very active person before my ICD (I'm 22 had it implanted when I was 21). I am still afraid to run and I used to be a big time runner.

You need to have it reprogramed to avoid unnecessary shocks.

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