New Dual Chamber Pacemaker

I am revising my post from yesterday as I now realize it  was a bit  confusing

I am attaching the cardiologists notes for clarification

Questions:

HISTORY

 In 1997 they put in a single chamber pacemaker due to a tick byte. I had third degree heartblock. Initially my pacemaker was pacing 77% of the time and  went down to 1%. I was in great shape...execizing and no issues

This past May, I had open heart surgery due to a leaky aortic valve and needing to take the leads out and replace the Pacemaker
I din't have any breathing issues  until this past August 

HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS:(DocD Notes)

The patient is a 64-year-old woman with tricuspid valve disease status post replacement as well as lead extraction and replacement of her pacemaker in May of this year. Overall, she is doing a lot better. She is no longer feeling the self checks. She is very happy about that. She has had some exercise intolerance where she gets short of breath and especially if she is

climbing up 2 flight of stairs at the school where she works or with other exertion. I did a treadmill stress test for her, and it seems that she certainly has an upper limit at which her sinus node seems to drop out, and then the pacemaker starts pacing her, and she can go from a heart rate in the 110-120 beats per minute range very quickly to the pacer pacing at 60 beats per minute, and this is where it seems her exercise threshold and breathing threshold lies. This occurred sometime between the fourth and fifth minute of the stress test today. She is, otherwise, doing well. No syncope or near syncope. No significant dizziness or lightheadedness. No other acute complaints.

Has anyone had a similar experience? My cardiologiat left me with these thought..it could get better  in time or  or you may need to make some permanent life changes. He also mentioned that I will need to make sure not to go over 120BPM or could have syncope issues. Wow-I keep thinking it may just be a pacemaker issue. I'm in the process of making several appointments..would love any feedback.

 

1 Comments

exercise

by Selwyn - 2024-01-02 11:39:06

Helllo Canadusa,

Sorry to hear of your very unusual health problems. You are very unfortunate to have had such a bad time.

Although to date there is no response to your posting, this may be because of the problems you mention of being 100% dependent on your pacemaker and your cardiologist telling you your heart was beating on it's own.  These two things  cannot make sense together. 

Having said that, this is hardly reassuring as even in the deadly ventricular fibrillation and complete heart block "your heart is beating on it's own" - that is until it stops!

 I don't personally find this level of communication reassuring.

I have this week posted quite a lot about exercise. and pacing. Please look at the recent posts and use the search facility in the upper right corner. This discusses pacemaker settings for exercise such as stairs.

In your postion, I would want to have an echocardiogram to ensure that the valve and ejection function of my heart were working properly.  

As mentioned in our posting about getting breathless going up stairs, if you find any pacemaker settings to help this, we will all be delighted. 

Best wishes for a healthy and improved 2024.

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Sometimes a device must be tuned a few times before it is right. My cardiologist said it is like fine tuning a car.