Exercise

I am 17 and im not the most fit person but im definitely not incredibly unfit either, i'd say im quite average for someone of my age, i am a healthy weight, i do some exercise and i have a fairly balanced diet. I have been noticing when i do a sudden unexpected exercise for example climbing flights of stairs quickly, or running for a bus i sometimes feel very out of breath and a bit shaky. I feel it may be to do with my heart rate speeding up too quickly and that makes it harder when i start off, but once it is steady at a high rate it is easier to continue, for example when i was climbing a very steep hill i had to stop and catch my breath but once i had very controlled breathing and slowed my heart rate down a little, i was able to continue the rest of the way without the same amount of trouble however when running up a flight of stairs (which takes less time so i dont stop) by the time i reach the top my heart is racing and i need quite a few minutes before i feel it is at a comfortable rate again. Does this sound like a good explanation or will it be to do with something else like blood sugar or general fitness? Would getting the sensitivity of my pacemaker lowered help this problem?

3 Comments

sensitivity

by Tracey_E - 2015-10-13 01:10:21

Reading your bio, you have heart block so theoretically your own heart is setting the pace when you exercise, the pacer just steps in to make sure the ventricles beat when the atria does.

Rate response has a variety of sensitivity settings, and yes, those can affect how fast your heart rate goes up on exertion. However, with heart block you shouldn't need rate response. Sometimes they turn it on anyway, thinking it'll be there if you need it, however sometimes it can compete with our own rate and cause problems. I would ask if it is turned on, and if it is see if they will turn it off.

It's not uncommon to race and get out of breath on stairs. I have no idea why, but a lot of us experience the same thing. My own theory is before we were paced, our hearts were out of sync so now they're just confused and go a little crazy sometimes.

Or, it could be general fitness. Probably not blood sugar, what wouldn't be connected with exertion. When in doubt, talk to your dr about it. Tell them what date/time it happens so they can check the interrogation report and see what your pacer was doing at the time. They can also do a stress test so they can watch what your heart does on exertion.

not rate response

by Tracey_E - 2015-10-13 01:10:48

Just saw your other post that you have one ventricular lead, that means you do not have rate response because that is an atrial function. All your pacer does is make sure the ventricles beat when the atria does, so if you are racing it's all you.

VVVR

by BillH - 2015-11-08 05:11:25

If it is a single chamber PM it could very well be setup as VVVR where the ventricles are paced with rate response.

With complete heart block the ventricles don't see the atrial pulse, thus neither does the PM ventricle lead.

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