Sick sinus syndrome

Hello everyone I posted before about how my heart is not fully using my pacemaker and that it only uses 2% I've had it for 5 months now, a week ago my doctor told me that I have sick sinus syndrome I guess my diagnosis with AV block wasn't accurate this is disappointing going through all of that for nothing... any ideas if my pacemaker will help me in this syndrome?

3 Comments

SSS

by AgentX86 - 2021-03-27 17:46:31

That's what pacemakers do, and pretty much all they can do is raise your heart rate. The two simplest things a pacemaker can fix is heart (A/V) block, and even easier is SSS.

You didn't say if you were chronotropically incompetent  (heart rate doesn't increase with oxygen demand). This would throw in a somewhat minor complication but a good percentage of us here are CI. Much of this forum is dedicated to adjusting pacemakers for optimal performance for those who are CI.

 

not for nothing

by Tracey_E - 2021-03-27 19:52:33

If your rate drops below 60 (SSS),  your pacer will make it go faster. If you exert and it doesn't go up on its own (SSS/CI), it will do it for you. If the atria beats but the ventricles don't (av block), it will keep the ventricles in sync. So it will fix both av block and sss. 

2% doesn't seem like much at first, but do the math. 60 beats per minute x 60 minutes in an hour x 24 hours in a day is 86,400 beats a day. 2% of that is 1700 beats, so nearly 2000 times a day, the pacer helps out. 

SSS

by IAN MC - 2021-03-28 06:35:38

Your sinus node is your heart's natural pacemaker . When your sinus node "fires" it sets in motion a knock-on effect that results in a heartbeat.

Your sinus node. like mine, is probably "lazy" so it's not performing its duties often enough.. hence your need for an artificial pacemaker .

The fact that it is only happening 2% of the time proves that SSS is an intermittent condition BUT like most intermittent conditions it may get worse over time so your reliance on the PM may increase.

Don't assume that it was a mis-diagnosis ... a definite percentage of SSS patients end up with a mal-functioning AV node... so you may well have both conditions. The  name of your condition doesn't really matter, the only thing that matters is that your PM is the answer  !

Best of luck

Ian

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I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.