Pacemaker Always Jolting

Care to share a bit more with us ?

by Gemita - 2021-04-22 13:13:04

Hello KMoreno,

You say you have had your pacemaker for about a year but your history tells me that it was implanted in 2021?  Care to share with us why you needed your pacemaker?  

Do you have a pacemaker/defibrillator by chance because that could certainly give you a jolt, but continuously for 5 to 10 mins?  I would hope a jolt from a defibrillator would be faster and over before then.  I don't think I could survive 5-10 mins of continuous jolts and only feel "a little tired afterwards when it stops but other than that feel normal".

Should you be concerned?  Depends on your answer to the above questions?  If you are really experiencing long lasting jolts you should contact your doctors as soon as possible to find out why.  

Hello Gemita

by kmoreno - 2021-04-22 13:22:06

I have bradycardia, thus needing the pm. It was implanted last may, so almost a year ago. 

During the year it's gone off a few times as normal, a jolt or two here and there as needed but lately the jolts habe veen a bit continuous, and a bit annoying if I'm being honest.

I would contact your clinic and get them to investigate the problem

by Gemita - 2021-04-22 13:35:21

Dear KMoreno,

If you have a pacemaker only for bradycardia (no defibrillator) you should not be getting any "jolts", so I am unclear what device you have.  In any event you should contact your clinic and explain fully what is happening, how long it lasts, what it feels like, your symptoms during these jolts (or before/after these jolts).  Keep a diary of the times it occurs.  If you have home monitoring, please ask if you can send a transmission to your clinic, so that they can check your data downloads for signs of device malfunction or heart rhythm problems.

Whether you have a defibrillator or a pacemaker your doctors would want to know about any "jolts" of this length and frequency and to carry out some checks on your heart condition and device fairly urgently.

Good luck

Not sure

by kmoreno - 2021-04-22 14:23:27

Not sure how to explain it, not a jolt per se, but I can feel the pacemaker going off for a while. 

Definitely will call my specialist for a check up as it will be a year and just to see if maybe an adjustment needs to be made to my settings .

Similar feeling

by KatieG - 2021-04-23 04:55:37

Hi Kmoreno! I only had my PM fitted a week ago, for a heart block and low HR. I felt really good after the initial post-op discomfort had worn off, almost as if I was on a high. Probably due to having more oxygen pumped around my body! Anyway, yesterday I woke up and didn't feel quite so good. Tired, sore around the site of my PM, and I was aware of my heartbeat again, like palpitations. I checked my pulse and it was good, and I had no other symptoms (I was worried I'd maybe dislodged a lead). I tried to rest and ignore the sensations but in the end I called my cardio unit and sent them a report from my home monitor. By the time they called me back later in the day, things had settled down a bit. There was nothing wrong, but they did say it can take a bit of getting used to. The PM does a daily check on itself and it's possible it needed to kick in a bit more to regulate my heart beat yesterday. I'd maybe just overdone things a bit, due to feeling so good! 

I'm sure there will be wee niggles now and again as we get used to having this amazing device keeping us going. But I would get it checked out anyway - as you said, it may just need a change of setting. Gemita's advice is very good. Let us know how you get on x

UPDATE

by kmoreno - 2021-04-28 02:12:25

Hey everyone, I went to my GP who discussed it with my Cardiologist, and it turned out it was my potassium levels acting up. I was low and had a hard time keeping it stable because of my odd eating habits (I forget to eat, only eat one meal, or have snacks instead of meals) and it was causing palpitations, which also would set off the pm. Weird right? 

I am now on a more regular eating habits/schedule (thanks to me now meal prepping and alarms/reminders) and have the levels at a stable number. 

The jolting has stopped and now returned to it's normal purpose of going off when my heart is normlnor a little too lazy. I still am going to see my electrocardiologist in a few weeks for my annual check up just to make sure everything is running smoothly.