Reliance

I just went in for my initial 2 week check up and the doctor said everything looks great. I told him that I could feel a strange knocking feeling (best way I can describe it) in my heart (R ventricle) sometimes. He at first didn’t believe me but then as they tested it the feeling started and I had him physical feel my HB and he confirmed this weird feeling and made some kind of adjustment. I still feel it but it’s not nearly as prominent. 

Anyway I asked him to change my setting from 50 bpm up to 60. He stated I was pacing 16% of my day already and now I feel the pacing a lot more often. Does anyone know how reliant our heart becomes on the PM and have any feed back on if I should maybe have them put it back to 50? 

2 Comments

Heart doesn't become reliant

by Theknotguy - 2018-01-06 11:17:51

Your heart doesn't become reliant upon the pacemaker.  The pacemaker is there to step in when the heart doesn't beat as it should.  So your EP is saying that out of 100 times the heart needs to beat the pacemaker only had to step in about 16 times. Pretty good as I pace 80-90 percent of the time.  Also pretty good you're set at 50BPM as I'm at 60BPM.  That means your heart is able to function very well about 84% of the time.  

Right after they implant the pacemaker they set the voltage a little higher to help the pacemaker keep the heart going.  I'm one of those sensitive people who could feel the electric "tickle" before the heartbeat.  It appears you may be too.  They dropped the voltage at one of my regular pacemaker checkups.  Didn't feel a thing and everything went on as normal.  I just didn't feel the "tickle" any more.  

We, as patients, like to have things fixed immediately.  Pacemaker doctors like to hold off "fixing" things until the heart and body settle down to a consistent pattern.  Sometimes the settling down takes severl weeks to several months.  So it the doctor makes a change now he's not sure if he fixed a problem or not.  It took me a while to learn that as a patient.

Had a friend that opted for ablations.  Has had several and is getting to the point where they won't be able to do any more. Then he'll be in a really tough situation as he will have completely run out of one option and will have to rely on just medication.  What will he do if the medication doesn't work?  We both don't know. So even though it's hard, it is sometimes best to step back and hold off on making changes until things settle down.  Obviously the waiting is the hard part. 

Right after I got my pacemaker, what I told you this week would be different from what I told you next week and that would be different from what I told you the week after that.  Things were changing so rapidly at first.  After four years I have a steady set pattern and even that changes from time to time.  So it is a long waiting game.  In the meantime, as long as the heart keeps beating I feel I'm doing OK. 

Hope everything else goes well for you. 

reliance

by tobydell - 2018-02-08 15:00:25

one thing is for sure and that is everyone is different, you can only report how things are for you, if that helps someone else to make their own judgement then that is a bonus, for me crt has given me more energy than before when i go for a check up i will be able to ask certain questions that without this forum i perhaps would not have considered

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As for my pacemaker (almost 7 years old) I like to think of it in the terms of the old Timex commercial - takes a licking and keeps on ticking.