heart is pounding and irregular

I am 6 weeks post Medtronic Sensi Dual Chamber PM. I have always had irregular heartbeats since implantation. My doc has tweaked it twice, but today he decided to turn one of them off to see if that would quit the irregular HB. It seemed okay until I got home. Now it won't quit beating hard up my throat, feels very irregular non-stop and I can't get comfortable at all, and certainly won't be able to sleep with it going this way. Anybody have any suggestions? He wants me to wear a Holter monitor next week Thursday if the weird irregularities don't stop with this new setting. I just don't know if I can wait that long. And then I won't see him for a month after that. This setting is way worse than it was before.

3 Comments

Call the Doctor

by Grateful Heart - 2013-07-30 09:07:10

If you are that uncomfortable call your Doctor, don't wait until next week. Explain to him what is happening now and that it feels worse.

Sometimes it takes a few adjustments to get it right for you.

Hope you get some relief.

Grateful Heart

Dear mojo

by coppertop - 2013-07-30 11:07:34

Grateful heart is right. call your DR. asap! I am new too. I have had my pacemaker 2mos. I would be on my way to the ER.!!! I hope this gets straightened out for you.
let us know ok?! take care.

coppertop

Ditto to Call the Dr.

by jenny97 - 2013-07-31 09:07:47

The doctor is there to help you and if the new settings feel worse than the old settings, he should be able to make some adjustments.

One of the settings that has caused me discomfort similar to what you described is the lag between atrial and ventricular pacing. They try to limit the amount of ventricular pacing, particularly in young patients like myself, but in some cases, like me, doing so leads to a very weird unnatural rhythm. My dr. finally relented and paces my ventricle more than he'd like, but it really minimizes the hard beats in my throat.

Although you should certainly go to the ER if you feel you are in an emergency, if it is a settings issue, the ER will probably not help. Most do not typically have EP specialists or PM techs on staff and even when they find someone, they may or may not make adjustments to your settings that help you. They will likely just confirm that you are not in a life-threatening emergency and refer you back to your dr.

Good luck! I hope you get feeling better soon!

Jenny

You know you're wired when...

Bad hair days can be blamed on your device shorting out.

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