Patrick - don't sweat the pacemaker. When I had my valve replaced, my heart must have gotten bored. After the surgery, my heart went fast, then very fast, then slow, then very slow, then it just plain stopped for periods of up to 20-30 seconds at a time. Trust me when I say that it is no fun to watch your own heart monitor go flat-line. One minute you're fine (sorta), then the next it is "lights out." You awaken to a ring of very serious and concerned faces all around your bed as they try to figure out what happened. I had this on and off for about 4 days, at which time they said that they could either continue trying to control things with meds or they could implant a pacemaker. I asked them "Do you have a pacemaker handy?" When they said that they did, I asked them "What are we waiting for?"
That was 6 years ago. I am now on pacemaker number 2. Number 1 was retired when one of my leads failed and needed to be replaced. I can tell you that really the only time I notice that I have the pacemaker is when I look in a mirror with my shirt off. I'm now 69 years young. I still work 50+ hours/week and hit the gym 5 days a week, travel, do home projects, etc.. Life is good. Yours can be, too.
