This Thursday

I am having a pacemaker on the Thursday at Duke university nc
I have had low pr. In the area of into the 30s and delays of4 seconds betw beats.
I am very nervous. Male, 63, swimmer.
I understand I must wait 6 weeks b4 swimming again
Been having increase trouble sleeping scared that the ticker will stop at night b4 the procedure.
Any advice is appreciated

3 Comments

Nervous?

by Grateful Heart - 2014-09-14 10:09:26


Well of course you are. The waiting is the hardest part.

I felt the same way as the surgery date got closer. It's only natural to worry about EVERYTHING.

I didn't know much (ok, I didn't know anything) about PM's or ICD's before I needed one, except they were only for old people and NO microwaves.....and that was all wrong. :-/

All of us have gone through it and your ticker will be fine until Thursday. They wouldn't let you wait if they thought it was an immediate emergency. I thought about getting up out of the wheelchair right before they wheeled me up for the "procedure". I am so glad I didn't leave but I really did consider it. Education about our devices is the key.

Thursday will get here. Let us know how it goes and welcome!

Grateful Heart

Surgery tomorrow

by carolinagirl27 - 2014-09-16 01:09:45

1radoncman...

I am having my first pacemaker implanted tomorrow at WakeMed Raleigh. I am 40 years old and am really nervous as well.... I'll try to let you know before Thursday how the process is.
Good luck to you on Thursday! I'm sure we will be just fine. :)

The day of...

by Lurch - 2014-09-16 11:09:19

I copied this from another post I made regarding what to expect the day of the procedure. Each hospital is a little different, but this may give you a representative idea of what your day will be like...


Typically, you will report to the hospital at an ungodly hour (for me it was 5:30am). You will sign enough papers to drown in, then you will be taken to your room.

At our hospital you use one room for the entire stay (probably saves on cleaning costs). My wife and I were escorted into the room and I was given a very fashionable hospital grown to change into. Of course, the first one was made for a small child and didn't come close to fitting me, so they got me a jumbo version.

Once I modeled my new attire for the wife a nurse came in and started an IV. Shortly later the Anesthesiologist came in and asked me the same questions I had answered on the mountain of papers I filled out before.

He told me that they would put me out, do the procedure, wake me up then bring me back to the room.

He left and few minutes later another Anesthesiologist came in. Apparently they had an emergency and bumped me back about 45 minutes so the other Anesthesiologist must have met his quota with the emergency patient; that or he didn't like me..... Right after that they put something in my IV that started relaxing me.

Shortly before 9 am the Surgical Tech came to the room, checked to make sure I was who I said I was (as if someone would sneak in for a procedure like this), and wheeled me down the hall.

We went into the procedure room where there were a bunch of folks standing around waiting for little ole me! They had me move from the hospital bed to the procedure table, which was an adventure in that lovely grown they had given me. The Anesthesiologist asked me again who I was and what procedure I was having (I had really hoped that they knew what I was getting....) then gave me some really good stuff through the IV.

The next thing I remember they were moving me back over to my hospital bed and telling me that everything had gone fine.

They rolled me back to my room where my wife had been waiting. Fortunately, she had gone downstairs and got me a big cup of coffee! I have to have my coffee in the morning, but I couldn't before the procedure. Bless that woman!!!

About 45 minutes later the Biotronik representative came in and did my very first "interrogation" of my unit. They place a little disk over your PM/ICD that allows them to make adjustments and read all the settings. He gave me my temporary ID card (apparently they check to make sure the credit card payment cleared before you get a real ID) and a booklet about my device and what I should and shouldn't do.

About an hour after that the Doctor came in. By this time, I was fully wake and had been walking around the room and the hallway. He saw that I was wearing the sling the nurse had given me, took it off and threw it across the room! He told me to wear it only at night for the first couple of weeks or if I was doing something where I needed to be reminded not to lift my arm over my shoulder or pick up anything heavy. He is not a fan of slings as they can create problems for your shoulder later. I noticed through this group that each doctor is apparently a little different regarding the use of a sling.

The hospital I was in has "room service" where you order your meal from a menu and they bring it whenever you want, supposedly.... We ordered lunch and waited, and waited, and waited. A nurse finally checked on it for us and found that they had no record of my order! Wife ran out and got us some lunch from a restaurant down the street. Learned our lesson and she did the same thing for dinner.

Rest of the day was boring; sat around, watched TV, surfed the net and watched people come and go.

Next morning they took me to X-Ray to make sure the wires were still where they had left them then kicked me out!

The Doctor gave me a prescription for pain medication. I took two the first two days, but it really wasn't all that painful, but, I had paid for those meds so I might of well enjoyed some of them. Stiff and little muscle soreness, but nothing like what I had expected.

Had mine implanted the first week of May, five or six weeks later I was body surfing with my Grandson.

The procedure is done about 200,000 times annually in the US, so they apparently have got it down pretty good!

Keep us posted on how you are doing, and, please, if you have any questions, ask!

Good luck.

You know you're wired when...

Airport security welcomes you.

Member Quotes

Today I explained everything to my doctor, he set my lower rate back to 80 and I felt an immediate improvement.