has anybody had this problem with a pacemaker

[tiggerangelgirl]

today I went to the oral surgeon to be sedated and have my tooth removed,while they were putting the pre-meds in my heart rate became erratic and went up to 128 now i dont quite understand how it did this ,i defiently felt it raced and im pretty sure i felt it race alot but I always put it of because iam 99.9% in heart bloch i have absolutly no electrical system to go haywire but it did and we looked at the ekg and i felt the rythem doing weird things and the surgeon said that i was being paced.I dont understand this at al because my rate is 60.
Does a pacemaker have a range on it so if you were to exercise it would go up.I was extremly nervous and maybe my pacemaker took it as me excersing and then paced me back down to 60 because it did withen the minute.the oral surgeon went ahead and pulled the back tooth that sat next to my wisdoms before i had them pulled.I will call my pacemaker nurse first thing tomorrow and have her read my pacer because it capsures everything,but was just wondering if anyone else expierenced this.I am now cleared for surgery and will go on the 26 to speak with the surgeon

 

[Gnusgal]

I HAVE experienced the same thing, so don't worry. Let me explain a little about pacemakers. I assume you have a dual-chambered pacemaker?

I also have "complete heart block." But that does not mean that there is no electricity coming from the heart itself. It can just mean that the atriums and ventricals have stopped talking to each other (at least, this is my understanding). You see, I'm 98% dependant on my pacer for my VENTRICALS, but only 4% dependant in my ATRIUMS. Essentially, if the atriums increase in rate, but it isn't perceived by the pacer as a problem, the pacer will then help the ventricals keep up. When I first experienced the sudden rapid heart rate while sitting down it scared me too. But after going to the doctor I found out a little more (as a matter of fact, it looks like I'm going through it again). There is sometimes a "short circut" in the atriums that causes what is called "atrial flutter." This means that the atriums are "twitching" so to speak. The pacemaker sees this as the atrium picking up the heart rate because of excersize (yes, there IS a range of heart rates a pacemaker will allow. My lower is 70bpm, and upper is 170bpm) and therefore increases the rate in the ventricals, causing the entire heart rate to speed up, until finally the heart rate either reaches the top limit and the pacer pulls you back down, or the atrial flutter stops. These things can be controlled with medicine.

I hope that explains a little better. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. I don't always know the answer, but after 20 years of pacemaker dependancy, I have learned a thing or two along the way. I still suggest you call your doctor tomorrow and let him know what is going on. He will be much better able to diagnose, as I am just going off of MY experience, and not your exact circumstances. I do not know why you are pacemaker dependant, so what I have said could be COMPLETELY wrong.

Let us know what the doc says!

 

[tiggerangelgirl]

that does make alot of sense and it does feel like your heart is quivering,now i was told that i didnt have any activity of my heart because the ablated all the nodes sa and av I think is this still true of what you said because this is exactly what it felt like as you described.
the reason i had to have my pacemaker in is because i had blount trauma to my heart from an accident that started to cause terribble and life threatning arrythnias,so after tryind all medications including last resort amiorderone i had to have five ablations 4 of them unsuccessfull and the last one they burnt all the nodes ans placed an wxternal pacemaker on the outside until the one i have now.Is this at all possible due to the chronic restrictive pericarditis or the two bad valves tricupsid and mitral which i will be having replaced soon,thank you so much you defiently have alot of knowledge after that many years Ive been only dealing with this for three years ans i also have accquirred some heart knowledge .thanks for the replys

 

[Gnusgal]

Now I don't know for sure, with the SA node being ablated, if you are experiencing the same thing as me or not. I suppose it is possible that there can still be short circuits, but I haven't any experience with that. I would definately talk to your card about it. Hopefully he has an answer. I assume, from your reaction today, that this has never happened before?

Do you know if your pacemaker has a feature that speeds up your heart with activity? I'm trying to remember what it's called... Oh, yeah! Rate Responsive. It is a feature on the "newer models" (didn't have them 20 years ago). Essentially, the pacemaker has a sensor that determines if you are moving more than usual, or breathing heavier, and will increase the heart rhythm, thinking you are exercising. It is designed for people (like you?) who's heart rates don't increase with activity on their own. It's supposed to be a wonderful feature. However, I hate it. Fortunately, I don't really need it. But I have had doctors turn it on before, and can tell you with certainty that I hope I never need it. For me, it was too sensitive. I had to ride a bus to downtown Houston once with it on. It thought the bouncing of the bus was me being active and increased my heart rate to 120 (my upper limit at that time)! I was miserable. I've been told it's not that bad for people who really need it, but for me it was.

Maybe this is something that happened? Was the dentist doing anything in particular at the time that it started happening? Just another thought.

If you want to learn more about your pacemaker, you can probably find information on their web site. I have a Medtronic Dual Chambered pacemaker, so I was looking at their web site www.medtronic.com to help me remember what the feature was called. They have a lot of information. It might help you out some...

Hope you're doing better!

 

[tiggerangelgirl]

went to dr today

went to dr today

went and saw my cardiologist and they hooked up my pacemaker and read it,boy we were not ready to see what was going on.In the last two months i have had 8 episodes of extreemly high rates,258-300 he said that they are the kind of rythems that are fatal i think he said a-fib,but the bottom of my heart has absolutly no activity and it is the top of my heart making them.you see if your familiar ablation the reason for mine was to erase all my nodes and electrical pathways,so when duke did the final ablation they had destroyed between 24 25 different ones .The doctor told me that my heart is growing back some pathways only in the upper chamber of my heart and the bottom cannot pace with it so the rythem becomes dangerous

 

[Nancy]

Wow, Nicole-

Those are scary readings. You did mention that surgery is coming soon, right?

God Bless.

 

[bvdr]

Nicole,

When you finish with all this you should just probably go apply for admission to medical school. You are certainly enough hands-on training! And this all started with chest injuries from a car accident? I sure hope this straitens out some for you. When will you find out about a surgery date?

 

[Gnusgal]

Oh, Nicole, I am SO sorry! I'm glad that your pacer recorded the episodes (mine always seems to miss the ones I'm complaining about). At least now you are aware and something can be done. Probably while you have your valve replaced, they can also work on solving these arrythmias. And maybe it will speed up the process too? I hope so. You've been through TOO much. You and your little girls will be in my prayers...

 

[sylviayasgur]

wow nicole!
that is so frightening! i hope that the docs can resolve this soon and get you well on our way to feeling better.
you poor thing, you have been through so very much already.
wishing you all the best. you are in our thoughts and prayers.
please let us know what the doc says on the 26th.
be well, sylvia

 

[tiggerangelgirl]

thank you

thank you

thank you so much for your support,please continue to keep me in prayer iam really struggling and on monday when i return the monitor if i still feel bad,i think i'll just let him admitt me until everything is tooken care of.I've done all of my christmas shopping,put up the tree with the girls ,wrapped all the presents and put them under the tree,right now its time to focus on me and when i go to that dr you all will see i got a list and im only checking it once and im going to make sure that all of this gets tooken care of at one time and I will not leave that hospitial until I have a fixed heart and a plan for my NEW and WONDERFULL LIFE,continue to pray for me and i will do the same .thanks again everyone it has been a long road and I cant wait until the time comes that I will be able to help someone else. love nicole

 

[Nancy]

Glad you made that choice, Nicole. It's time, and has been for quite a while. I wish you all the best and hope that if they admit you, someone can let us know how things are going.

Take care.

 

[medtronic of borg]

shes right

shes right

gnu is on the money ! ! !

Med

 

[Kathy]

Dear Nicole,

I had very erratic rhythyms like yours, but at the time I was in the hospital. By the time I arrived home things were under control with meds and the pacemaker. I was scared enough in the hospital, I can't imagine dealing with that at home.

I'm glad that you got your Christmas shopping done for the girls. That is a real priority! I hope that you will convince the doctor to admit you to the hospital.

 

[M&M]

Hi Nicole, I hope this all gets taken care of - and you get some answers as to what is going on.

Niki - I know what your talking about when a person has to rely on the rate response feature of the ICD. I've been totally dependent on it in the past - not right now - but for me I thought it was lacking the necessary heart beats for going upstairs - I was so out of breath - so I told a guidant rep that I could not breath with the UP movement. He said the machines don't recognize UP 'movement' - so if you want to get it to give you a higher rate - do a prerun before you go UP and then the machine will give you the needed beats that it takes to go UP.. Believe it or not - it works.. I was so upset when I couldn't breath and walk upstairs - I thought for sure my arteries were clogged - but they weren't. Also the machine doesn't recognize 'enthusiasm for living' adrenaline. Since a person is not 'moving' when they get excited it doesn't give enough heart beats to match your adrenaline. I found out all this 'after' I had to go on meds for my vt's.. before my anti-arrhythmia meds I didn't have a problem as I wasn't dependent on these features to function. Since then - I have built up a tolerance to the meds and I can do things without the aid of the machine. Still going upstairs isn't perfect - but yet I can run half marathons. As long as the course is fairly flat I don't have a problem - you put in a few hills and I can go part way up and then I can't breath. But I still get 10:00 to 10:30 minute miles so I can't complain - I just wish I breathed better on those hills. I know I could go 'faster'.. I'm NUTS..

Lets hope for better 'technology' for stairs and hills. and lets not forget 'enthusiasm'..

Best
Marilyn and **** - Runner