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Justin McClanahan, Moderator avatar

Pacemaker & ICDs: Introduce Yourself & Meet Others

Pacemaker & ICDs | Last Active: Mar 7 4:47pm | Replies (161)

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@tigerjim1
Hello Jimmy. I have had a ICD/Pacemaker since 2006. I am on my 3rd device.

What my Electrophysiologist (EP) told me about ICD/Pacemaker (do you mean by dual that you have a ICD/pacemaker?) is liking have your own EMS team waiting to help you.

Also he told me would take about a year for you and your body to become used to having a foreign device in your body. Also told me takes about a year for body to encapsulate it. Meaning the body will form a protective gel around it and that will reduce feeling of it and also reduce any friction caused by device.

My device pacing is set for 70 bpm. Over the 20 years I have had one the Pace Clinic at Mayo has fine tuned my pacing for what is best for me. I take medications that lowered my PR to down in 30s. They had my pacemaker set at 50 but found needed a higher pulse rate for being active and slowly we found that 70 bpm was optimal for me. Because of medications my pulse does not get above 70 unless really exercising hard and then only about 100.

Bring to the attention of your EP or cardilogist about being light heades and mentioned (to remind them) if pulse rate set at 55 might be causing this. It appears you are very active like me and possibly like me need a higher pulse rate because of activity.

I know when my pulse rate was in 30/40 I would get dizzy when standing up. So talk to your cardiologist about your lightheadedness. Also are you on any blood pressure medications?

I know if my pacemaker was set at 55 it would not be high enough for me to not get dizzy standing up quickly nor give me the rate to allow me to exercise. Talk to your EP about programming your device to react to exercise. Some devices have that options and the devices senses movement and other ways to have it raise pulsing.

I did not like the feel of that and had my exercise mode shut off.

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Replies to "@tigerjim1 Hello Jimmy. I have had a ICD/Pacemaker since 2006. I am on my 3rd device...."

@jc76
Thanks for this info. It’s very interesting and informative.
I’ll definitely be taking the content into account while considering possible options.
Really appreciated. 🙏