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Asymptomatic A fib, and use of a monitor watch and starting eliquis
Heart Rhythm Conditions | Last Active: Mar 28 11:08am | Replies (28)Comment receiving replies
@marybird
Thanks for taking time and very helpful.
I don't think so many people know how life changing they can be and I say this also for medical professionals who have not suffered with them.
I cannot take any medications that are to lower my HR. My pacemaker paces me at 70 bpm because my normal rate with medications I am taking would be in low 50s.
You are right with Murphy's law. I had a Holter monitor for 48 hours and not one AFIB or VFIB. The problem I have addressed with pace clinic is the fact they had my theresold for reporting a tachycardia was set at 160 bpm and I had several at 140. So they did not see them on notification nor were they sent. So I said okay programming wrong or device not working because I know I had a VT.
Then they call back and say we checked the strips and yes indeed you had a VT but was below reporting so they changed the number. Then I have a ton of noise on one of my atrial leads. That causes the device to read AFIB. So they years ago lowered the sensitivity. So now when I was getting all those AFIB episode the device was not reporting even though I was having them. So I had they changed the sensitivity to report them only to cause another problem. When atrial are beating fast the device tries to bring ventricles up to match rate. That causes me to feel a racing pulse. So I can't find a way to solve both so have to live with it.
Thanks again!
Replies to "@marybird Thanks for taking time and very helpful. I don't think so many people know how..."
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@jc76 Sure sounds as though you have had a time of it! I can see where having a lot of noise in an atrial lead would result in a lot of maybe erroneous or confusing readings- it'd be hard to tell if the signals came from your heart activity or that lead!
I just wanted to comment on your saying you can't take any medications for heart rate control, is your reason for saying that because of the pacemaker or for other reasons? Actually, taking rate control drugs for tachycardia which lower the heart rate way too low is one of the indications on the American Heart Association (AHA), and the Heart Rhythm Society guidelines for pacemaker placement. The recommendation is classified as 1A ( everybody agrees it will help) when medications for which there is no replacement and re required to treat a patient's condition lower the heart rate to unacceptable levels. In these cases the medication would continue to lower the heart rate, but the pacemaker will kick in to keep the heart rate at the levels for which it is programmed. This happens even when the dosage is increased. So if you were to take a rate controlling drug, it wouldn't drop your heart rate too low as it would have done before you had your ICD/pacemaker, your pacemaker would continue to pace your heart as needed for your activities.
I have taken metoprolol for many years to control my SVT ( the Afib and flutter came along later), and over time I developed bradycardia. This became symptomatic, got worse, but stopping the metoprolol caused a great increase in the tachycardia and when it wasn't tachycardying, the bradycardia was still there. The EPs and my cardiologist determined I had an underlying problem ( sick sinus node) anyway but this was exacerbated by the metoprolol- which otherwise did an excellent job of keeping my tachy under control. We felt the best option was for me to have the pacemaker, and take the metoprolol for tachycardia control. It's worked fairly well for a number of years, I've had increases in the metoprolol ( 150 mg/day now) and the pacemaker still keeps my heart rate where it should be. That's me, I know everyone is different but your pacemaker will still pace your heart rate to where it's needed even if you take a rate controlling drug.
I'm glad they've at least lowered your alert settings to where your tachycardia actually occurs. As you said, your tachycardia will still show up on your monitor reports, but if they only show up every 3 months or so, the opportunity to take some action might be missed. Have they said anything about fixing or replacing that noisy lead?