Keep complaining

• by LEW49
• 2014-07-13 02:07:47
• Complications
• 1234 views
• 1 comments

I had a pacemaker implanted in late March of this year to treat heart block. The cardiologist assured me that I'd feel great and after the incision healed be able do anything I wanted to.
As soon as I got up and walked around the cardiac ward after the implantation, I knew something was wrong. But I was assured everything was alright. The morning after they let me out of the hospital I was back in the emergency room. I had developed in atrial flutter which was driving me into tachycardia. I was put on a beta blocker and an anticoagulant. I felt much better. Luckily the atrial flutter was a temporary condition caused by the irritation of my atrium getting used to pacemaker lead. I was able to discontinue medicine after six weeks.

Then I noticed that I would feel out of breath and that my heart rate would vary when I was pushing myself on the elliptical trainer. I went back to the cardiologist and was diagnosed with pacemaker mediated tachycardia. And adjustment was made to my pacemaker to fix that.

Next, I noticed that I would hit A heart rate of 130 beats per minute and suddenly my heart rate would drop to 65 bpm. I figured that I was hitting the maximum that the pacemaker would allow and I wanted them to raise it to 160 bph. They gave me a stress EKG, observed the phenomenon, and agreed to raise it.

Next, I got a copy of my pacemaker interrogation report. I was being paced in my atrium 25 percent of the time. I figured that this was because when I was resting and sleeping my heart rate was at the lower limit and begin to pace me. I asked them to lower the minimum pacing right to 55 bpm. Atrial pacing drop to 0.

Most recently, After having purchased a Mio Alpha heart monitor, I got accurate enough readings on my heart to see that when my heart rate hit 115 or 120 it was still acting erratically. This time I went to visit an electrophysiologist, Who in combination with the pacemaker representative, was able to diagnose that I was getting a secondary spike in my atrium which was an echo of my vetricular contraction. This only happened when I began exercising hard. They were able to change the filter and finally after all this time my heart appears to be behaving normally.

Moral of the story is don't let them tell you everything is fine if you don't feel fine, and keep going back, Including A consultation with electrophysiologist, if things aren't right.