Here's what happened.
Joe had several faints caused by a slow heart rate, he also had afib and had an extremely fast heart rate at times. So the rhythm was all over the place. Whenever he went to the emergency room, I hated to watch the heart monitor, it was like watching a rollercoaster.
After these episodes, they put him on a calcium channel blocker which helped the rapid heart rate, and then installed the pacemaker to keep the heart from going too slow. The pacemaker also luckily kept his heart in a regular rhythm. He is now off the calcium blocker, and his heart seems to be in normal sinus rhythm.
He goes for his pacemaker checkup this week, so hopefully things will be just fine.
I'm not sure about the atrials vs. the ventricles, we didn't delve that far.
The cardiologist had the group's cardiology rhythm specialist consult on the case and this is what they came up with as a solution.
I know the pacemaker works very hard.
So far, so good.
Every time I ask the cardiologist if Joe's heart is in normal sinus rhythm, he says that it is and is probably being paced.
He's been in afib for many, many years, and I think if it weren't for the fainting episodes, they would have left it alone.
The cardiologist said a long time ago that people live with afib, quite well. But of course when it becomes a life threatening thing then it's time to do something.