Guidant Pacemaker/Defibrillator

[RonP]

I was wondering if any others on the site also had a valve replacement plus a pacemaker and a defibrillator and had trouble dealing with the heat. I can say it sure bothers me. Hey, I'm tough, but this is misery for sure and I can tell it's not good.

 

[Nancy]

Hi RonP

Hi RonP

My husband has a Guidant pacemaker, but not a defibrillator. Do you mean heat from the implant when it fires to defibrillate?

I know the pacemaker is no problem whatsoever. Joe never even feels it going off.

I'd be interested to know.

Nancy

 

[RonP]

I don't think the heat is bothering the pacemaker so much as it's bothering me. Between my last two visits with my doctor, he stated I'd had two times where the pacemaker was activated to correct rhythm problems, one time taking two hours, but both times occurred while I was sleeping and in the early morning hours. My problem is that when going outdoors in the heat, it makes me sick after a short period of time and I wondered if this was a common problem with others also having pacemaker/defibrillators, or just rhythm problems.

 

[Nancy]

Hi Ron-

Joe is bothered by hot weather also, but he has always been bothered by hot weather. He has trouble breathing when it really gets hot. Prior to his last mitral valve surgery he was sweating profusely much of the time, even when it wasn't that hot.

Our house is not air-conditioned since we have a lot of trees and live in the Northeast, so we have fans going everywhere. I'm sure if we lived in a hot climate he would have lots of problems.

We haven't noticed any changes since the implant of the pacemaker, if anything, it helped and quite a bit too. He was in a-fib and the combination of calcium channel blockers with his pacemaker has regulated his rhythm, at least most of the time.

The last pacemaker check showed lots of activity on the printout, so I guess it's working its little head off.

By the way, he is also bothered by cold weather.

How does your intolerance for heat manifest itself? And what does the cardiologist say about it?

Nancy