I was a bit older when I had my valve replaced (was 63 at the time). Immediately after valve/bypass surgery my heart rate and rhythm were all wonky. I guess my heart got bored. It tried going fast, then very fast. It tried adding beats; it tried skipping beats. It went slow, then very slow, then just plain stopped. It would stop for up to 20-25 seconds at a time, every few minutes. It is NO fun to watch your own heart monitor go flat-line. One minute all is crummy but OK, then the next minute. . . lights out. You then wake up a few seconds later seeing this circle of very concerned-looking faces all around your hospital bed. This happens many times all through the night, like something from a bad science fiction novel. That's how my surgical recovery started. Then one of the docs told me "We can either continue trying to regulate your heart with medications, which may take another week or so IF IT WORKS, or we can implant a pacemaker and get you on your way. I just asked him "What are you waiting for?"
The rest is history. I am now just over 6 years out from valve/bypass/pacemaker surgery and life is good. I am on pacemaker #2, but would not have needed the replacement for another year or so had not one of my pacing leads failed last summer. Last summer I had laser lead extraction, new lead implanted and a new pacemaker implanted. I can tell you that getting the settings right for you may take a few visits to the device clinic, but once that is done you will not even know the pacemaker is there. You will not be able to tell when the pacemaker is pacing you versus any natural pacing you have. It is totally transparent, at least to me.
In the past 6 years I have simply carried on with my normal life. I'm now 69, still working 50+ hours a week (office job), working around the house, traveling, I go to the gym 5 days a week -- see the pattern? I just went back to my life. I am not joking when I say that the only time I really notice that I have a pacemaker is when I look in a mirror with my shirt off.
At your age, you will undoubtedly have some replacements in the future. Most of the time, barring any other work to be done (like lead replacement, etc.) the replacements are done on an outpatient basis. You go in first thing in the AM and you're home before lunch time. Even after a replacement pacemaker in the same spot, my pacemaker scar is almost invisible just months after the implant.
I could go on and on. My pacemaker is one of the best things that happened to me. It gave me my "regular" life back after complications in valve surgery. Ask any questions here, or if you like, PM me and we can go into more personal detail that way.
Above all, don't panic or go getting any more depressed than you may already be. These things work, and they really do allow you to just get on with life.
