@merly59,
Had ICD/Pacemaker for 10 years with no episodes. Then one afternoon 5 shocks in 24 hours. Hospitalized like you with the amidarone as well. It did stop the episodes. I did asked to come off it and I did. It was done slowly.

What happened to me is I developed PTSD with anxiety panic disorder. With medications I got a lot better. The Pace Clinic at Mayo Clinic did a lot of programing then about a year ago after 6 years of no shocks got them again. But found out we had turned on exercise mode and started having episodes so had them turn it off and episodes stopped. No one wants to say it was the cause but for me it was clear it was.

If you are not on some kind of anxiety medication you should be. I take escipilotron (spell) and it really helped. I also took Xanac (anxiety) and trazodone (sleep) for several months but have come off.

Did your doctors tell you to stop exercising? Mine told me the opposite. They told me to get back to exercising. It will help with stress, and help you sleep. You need to reduce the stress in your life and also exercise to keep you cardiovascular system from getting weaker. But you said were short of breath walking around block. Are you feeling a lot of stress worrying when you do that as that cause you to not breath deeply.

Having said that your cardiologist should be advising on exercise but I would contact him/her and asked about it. They can advise on what to do and not to do.