Heart rate drop with St Jude pacemaker

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I have a question about my pacemaker. I have had my St. Jude pacemaker since December of 2012 and have done great considering the alternative, lol. I have a very strenuous job and have had no issues with it. I am a wind turbine mechanic and routinely climb 200-300 ft towers sometimes multiple times a day. Anyway, my heart rate has been approximately 80-90 when resting and doesn't usually go below that.
After doing some especially strenuos work this week, I have been noticabley more tired all day and have seen my resting heart rate go down to 60. It pretty much stays right there all the time now when I am not moving. It's a noticeable change from 80-90. Is this something I should see my cardiologist about? I have a home moniter and assume that I would get a call if it detected a problem with the pacemaker.
Any thoughts would be appreciated

3 Comments

Maybe be some other cause

by BillH - 2015-12-20 04:12:13

You might be coming down with something.

But if you still feel like this in a couple of days give them a call.

Was the 80-90 a paced rate? Or is it your natural rate.

If it was a paced rate and now it is 60, then it might be a PM issue.

But if it is not from the PM, but your natural sinus HR then it could be caused by many issues.

Re:

by tdm5032c - 2015-12-20 04:12:29

I am not sure I guess. The St. Jude rep said that I am 100 percent paced now. I know the PM follows the natural sinus HR, but I'm not sure whether the 80-90 is paced or the natural rate.
I guess if it doesn't change I will check with my cardiologist this next week.

Thanks for your input

Tracy

My guess

by BillH - 2015-12-20 05:12:11

Is that the PM senses the sinus rhythm and then then uses it to trigger the ventricle.

What you feel in your pulse is the ventricle pules.

You can;t tell the underlying sinus rhythm without an EKG. So you can't tell if the sinus rhythm has changed or if there is a reason that the PM is not pacing at the same rate. And there can be several reasons why that could happen.

But the PM senses the sinus. I don't know what the capacity the monitoring system as to whether it can report the atrial rate (sinus)

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