New to Pacemakers

Hi there all, am evidently getting my first pacemaker implant on Monday. Have been treated for arrhythmia for about a year ... always too fast, I have idiopathic ventricular tachycardia. Am a fainter and have vasovagal syncope. Have had a loop recorder for about a year and on interrogation on Thursday found my last faint was caused by a hr of 30 bpm. I'm told this is bradycardia so a new one to add to the list. Explains why I fainted in bed this time. Anyway am wondering if other people have such odd heart rate extremes ... I go up to about 220bpm when tachy? Also, is the implant much the same as the loop recorder implant? We have our sons wedding on August 17th and really want to be swinging for that!!! Hope all of you are well. Cheers

3 Comments

Welcome

by bearss27 - 2013-08-02 09:08:25

Welcome to the group. I just had my pacemaker put in n june and have felt better than I have ever felt. I have had problems with arrhythmia's for about 12years my heart rate would range from 30bpm to sometimes 250bpm and went in and out of all kinds of stuff. They one time had my heart rate go to like 230bpm and then like stop and drop to 34bpm and stay there for long periods. I am still unsure what they tell me I have all I can manage to know is it goes into a wide range of arrhythmia's. I have never had a loop recorder because mine happened so often it was not hard to get a record of it and got worst over the years but the pacemaker I have really doesn't feel to big and really doesn't hurt to much. I had a great experience with my surgery and within about a week felt better than I ever had with the exception of some discomfort around the incision. Everyone is different when it comes to how they feel but I wish you the best of luck and keeps us updated.
Mary Katherine

Fast and slow

by Shepheart - 2013-08-02 10:08:48

I have had a pacemaker since Oct.2012. I have tachybrady or sick sinus syndrome. Lots of Afib and some PVC's. I am taking 5mg of bisoprolol per day. My heart rate is still going up and down between 60 and 100 beats within short periods of time. Thanks to the pm I don't go much lower than 60 bpm.

The Afib is causing the ventricles to beat too fast at times. Over the past few months I have had 17 episodes of plus 180 heart beats (ventricles). So a week ago the EP doubled my bisoprolol to 5mg hoping to slow down my heart. For the past week I have noted the highest rate at 104 bpm., so we will see how it goes.

I recently bought an oximeter which I use to check heart rate and oxygen level of the blood.

Post Pacemaker insert pain

by bj - 2013-08-07 03:08:35

Thankyou for your feedback. I'm now home from hospital and have pain in my chest on breathing in? Also sometimes 'feel' my heart beat quite hard. Am sore so taking it easy at present. Had a fair amount of nausea as well. Is this normal?
Cheers

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Member Quotes

I've seen many posts about people being concerned about exercise after having a device so thought I would let you know that yesterday I raced my first marathon since having my pacemaker fitted in fall 2004.