Surgery

healing

by Tracey_E - 2021-06-17 21:38:42

Many of us have hearts that are structurally healthy but with a short circuit. These are the easiest heart problems to fix, the pacer is a true fix not a bandaid. It's normal to be anxious at first. It takes some time to learn to trust it. For me, learning about my condition and how the pacer works to fix it helped a lot. The other thing that helped me come to terms with it was being active again, seeing for myself that I could push it and still feel good. As I got back to normal activity again and continued to feel good, I thought about the pacer less and less. Cut yourself some slack, it's ok to not be ok with it right away. It takes some time to wrap our heads around it.

28th

by AgentX86 - 2021-06-17 23:19:06

Look at it this way...  You're not OK with the symptomatic PVCs (boy to I understand that!) and to "fix" that problem, you'll have to further slow your heart to a dangerous level.  The PM fixes that part of the equatoin, anyway.  It may also be that increasing your heart rate will chase away the PVCs without drugs.  I have a PM for other reasons but after my surgery I was having PVCs.  Raising my HR to 80bpm fixed them.  Your EP will have more knobs to turn to improve your quality of life.  Sounds like a good trade to me.  In a few short months you'll be forgetting that you have it.  As we say, it'll be like your bellybutton.  You know you have it but you won't waste  time contemplating it.

Getting used to your unit

by Theknotguy - 2021-06-18 07:31:15

Yeah, the fact that you have to get used to having a miniaturized electrical device keep you alive really takes some mental gyrations.  They never did tell me that was what happened so I had to figure out why I needed the unit, then get accustomed to what it did.  It took nine months after I got my pacemaker before I finally got out of the car and walked across the parking lot without thinking about it.  Up until that time my mind was constantly on "what if", and would it really come through for me.  So the fact you are concerned isn't out of line and is pretty standard.  

As TracyE did, I learned as much about my pacemaker as I could.  That helped a lot.  Then, of course, you live with the unit and eventually you figure out it's doing what it needs to do so you become more comfortable about your situation.  After it's implanted, you should start feeling better and that will help a lot with the mental issues.  Other people I know with pacemakers just choose to ignore the unit as much as possible and go on with their lives.  That works for them.  They go to their pacemaker checkups but otherwise ignore the unit as much as possible.  

With the pacemaker my life has gone back to "normal".  It's a help and not a hindrance to my life and I can do everything I want to do.  

You've found the forum.  If you have questions you can always come back to here and ask them.  Plenty of people who have gone through the same situation as you and that means we can point you in the direction for answers.  Otherwise I hope your adjustment to your pacemaker goes well. 
 

Thank you!

by KRock75 - 2021-06-18 16:32:53

Thanks everyone for responding.