Replacement’s

Replacement

by Penguin - 2023-10-18 05:11:36

Hi Millie, 

Thank you for your post. Like you, lots of people worry about what will happen when their PM needs to be replaced.  I know that I was dreading it. 

Not sure if you get a copy of your interrogation reports? If you do there is usually an estimate - and I repeat 'estimate' - of the amount of time remaining on your battery included in the data. It's usually expressed in months and this is monitored by your technicians.  

In the UK replacements are scheduled at 12 months battery life remaining. It is different in the US and elsewhere as replacements are organised by health insurance companies who, I believe, have their own criteria for replacement. I will therefore leave this topic for someone from the US to answer, although there are plenty of discussions on this topic for you to read if you'd like to do so - (suggest that you put ERI or Replacement into the search box with the looking glass icon in the tabs above).

Best Wishes

Replacement PM

by piglet22 - 2023-10-18 05:56:06

Hello

There seems to be something wrong with your bio as it's throwing up an error.

I noticed the same thing with someone else recently.

The only reason I was interested was because there's a big difference between UK cardiology and say, US and Canada. I can only speak for UK.

I have the same PM as you and mine was fitted as a replacement in January 2016 after 11-years with the first one, fitted for Complete Heart Block in 2005.

I've commented on here many times about my replacement experience because it's not supposed to happen as an A&E admission.

Basically, despite 3-monthly clinic checkups for End of Life (battery), the PM failed one evening.

If you want to know what it's like, it's not dramatic, but you do know something has changed. In my case, the old PM, another Medtronic but older model, simply started twitching pectoral and left arm muscles. I rang around for medical advice, no-one knew what to do so was carted off to A&E and the PM replaced next day.

This is where I distinguish between UK practice and elsewhere.

In my health region, routine appointments with the specialist pacing cardiologists are non-existent. It's taken 18-years for me to see a consultant this year after complications.

The only people I ever saw for all that time were the physiologists who do the settings and the device interrogations, they aren't the cardiologists.

I never spoke to anyone about replacement, it just happened, and not in a good way.

Others seem to have better experiences and can discuss options, what's available, new technologies and so on. I got what was on the shelf.

Even when they stopped face to face clinics, the bedside monitor simply turned up in the post. They did manage to tell me about the clinics stopping, but nothing else. Take it out of the box and figure it out yourself. When it went wrong, you do all the legwork.

I've got a pretty poor opinion of cardiology here. Yes, I'm grateful for having the PM, but getting that was a struggle.

We have discussed here how reliable the monitoring of battery life is and I can tell you it's a very imprecise business. 3-monthly checkups didn't predict the failure.

I didn't have the monitor at home at the time - my views on that are that it should be in addition to clinics, not a substitute - so possibly failure would not have happened.

If you are UK based, I would want to be told a lot more about how my new device is going to be managed.

Another gripe is that if I hadn't seen it on this forum, I would never have thought of asking for my settings etc. I haven't yet, but they've never been offered either.

On a separate occasion, I did ask about event recording, only to be told it might be too complicated to understand. Well let me be the judge of that.

It's up to you, but don't assume it will all be explained if there are choices and be very wary of estimates of the 3-monthly variety.

As for the replacement itself, it’s not a lot different to the first implant. If your condition has deteriorated over time, you may be prepared for external pacing which is more complicated. I was 7 years ago but didn't need it.

I'm looking for replacement in 2025 and quite expect to be externally paced.

Maybe others might have suggestions on what to ask, IF you get the opportunity!!