New Pacemaker WAY too sensitive

Just received a Biotronik for SSS  and CI. 3 days post op. I’m in good shape and, until recently , always had basal HR in 40s. Device is set at 40/150. However, now my basal hr is in 70s. I feel uncomfortable with a fluttering feeling in my chest. When I do very simple action like walk up stairs,it goes to 84. When I walk a quarter mile I get tachycardia with hr 120-130, and I have to sit down- worrying about passing out. Want to go back in and get this pm removed!  I was told the sensitivity setting is too high,and am scheduled to get it changed from medium to low. Am worried that even this will not help. Will it?

also read on this site that the “CLs” feature on this Biotronik may be the culprit, and that it should be turned off. Does anybody have any experience with this?

1 Comments

pacing

by Tracey_E - 2019-03-30 11:30:32

If your rate jumps up too quickly on mild exertion and you have CI, then that's the pacer and turning it from medium to low should help. How fast it goes up is a setting.

Could you also have some av block going on? Because if your minimum rate is 40, then the pacer won't kick in until your resting rate drops under that so anything above 40 at rest is (in theory) all you. With av block, the atrial rate goes up higher but the signal isn't getting to the ventricles, so the pulse is very low and the heart is out of sync. If this is happening, the pacer will make the ventricles beat whenever the atria does so it stays in sync. The pulse will be a lot higher but it's not artificially high from the pacer, it's where it should have been all along had that signal been getting through. You can ask if you pace ventricle, if you are then this might be what is going on. If you only have SSS and CI, then you will only pace atrial. 

Last thought, if your rate has always been in the 40's, 60-70 is going to feel very fast right now. My rate was in the 30's before I got the pacer and my new resting rate (70-80, I have av block) felt like I'd been mainlining coffee for the first few months after. Now, it feels perfectly normal and 40 would feel way too slow. What is normal for the rest of the population can take a little getting used to for us when we are first paced. 

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