pacemaker question

[farmgirl]

Hello.

I saw my cardiologist yesterday for my annual checkup. I have experienced chronic atrial fibrillation for seven years. I had hopes that they could do something about it when I had my mitral valve replaced five years ago, but they weren't able to do anything.

I have been having some problems with it feeling like my heart is pounding at times. I get short of breath too with it. I am on toprol xl 100mg twice a day and lanoxin 0.125mg every day. The doctor is going to add fast acting lopressor 25mg as needed for the palpations.

He then went on to surprise me by suggesting that I may want to consider a "demand pacemaker". I am scared of that. I have so many questions.

But, I guess the biggest question is.....if I did get the pacemaker, would my quality of life improve? Would I be able to go for longer walks, would I be able to chase that cow and not become horribly winded? Would I still be able to preform a job that requires heavy lifting at times?

Any thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Diane

 

[twinmaker]

Hey Diane! I too had atrial fibrillation for many years. In fact, I had it for well over 15 years after my valve was implanted. I went through all the meds. In fact, I was on Toprol XL for many years, and it worked pretty well. But in time, it stopped working, and we went on to other meds which either didn't work or had horrible side effects that I couldn't tolerate. Finally, after being hospitalized more than a few times to be cardioverted, we decided to do an A-V node ablation and put in a pacemaker. I am 100% dependent on it. It was probably the best decision I've ever made. I can tell you that I was able to play tennis and go about my daily activities. I don't feel the palpatations as much. I still get a little SOB, but not nearly as bad. Did your doctor speak about the ablation or just mention the pacemaker? I feel sure the ablation is what he's wanting to do. There are articles that explain an A-V node ablation on the net. Just type it into your search engine. I should explain that I've had my pacemaker removed and replaced with an ICD. Nothing to do with the atrial fib or the ablation. I started having ventricular tachycardia and hence the ICD. The ICD has a pacemaker in it, so in essence, I'm still dependent on it 100% of the time. After reading about the ablation, if I were you, I'd talk to your doc and ask him the questions about how you would feel after having the pacemaker implanted. Like I said before, it was one of my best decisions. If you have any other questions that I may be able to help with, let me know. LINDA

 

[Kathleen]

Hi Diane
My story is about the same as Lindas. A pacemaker will not get rid of afib unless the node is ablated. An ablation and pacemaker don't guarantee the afib will be gone. Do your research and make sure the EP has experience in ablations. Once an ablation is done it is permanent and you can't go back. The one med I used without any side effects was Tikosyn. It is not used often and has to be prescribed by special pharmacies. After 5 ablations and a pacemaker and then an ICD my interrogations show afib for at times 20 hours. I can tell when it is happening since I get so tired. If you need more information they do have some afib support sites that have a ton of info on them. Also if you want to ask questions feel free to let me know
Kathleen

 

[901]

Prior to my surgery I was told that I was in Chronic a-fib most of the time. As far as I know, I didn't have symptoms and couldn't tell that I was in it except when I was hooked up to a machine and watched the trace print out. I had the MAZE procedure performed to address the a-fib and apparently an unintended ablation.
About a month after my surgery, when I was in rehab, I was diagnosed with heart block and a pacer was installed.
The last time I went to the pacer clinic, last November, they told me that I had a-fib for XX seconds during the night in the previous April and several short episodes the previous November before that.
Between the MAZE procedure and the heart block the a-fib has been stopped and the pacer records everything. During rehab I was getting winded and found out the pacer was set at a max of 120. I asked to have the max increased to 150 and as far as I know I haven't worked out hard enough to get there, yet.

 

[farmgirl]

Thank you so much for the replies. It really helps to know that a pacemaker does help with quality of life. I guess it was such a surprise and seems so "final". But, we have all been through a lot with our valves and this is probably the next step. I do feel better than I did after I had the valve replaced. Maybe now it is time to do something about the afib and feel even better! All of your kind words have really helped ease my mind. Thank you.