← Return to Pacemaker recipients: Looking for support from others

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@danab

Hi AJ from New York welcome to connect. Congratulations on your new pacemaker. I had one for about 10 years before needing a Heart Transplant. The pacemaker was a life savor many times before my Heart just was beyond repair. But as for the pacemaker I'm thinking that based on its only been a few days your probably just suffering from the post installation of the device. They have to put wires into the area between the device and your heart . So just the trauma of the surgery may be the cause. Me myself suffer from acid reflux anyway and had that before the pacemaker. But I take medication for it and it is under control. But I would say let your doctors know and see if they have some suggestions to either relive it or maybe it's something temporary. I do know certain foods make it worse so you may want to consider diet changes to help. I don't remember the whole list but I would say just do a search for foods to avoid for acid reflux. I do know fried high fat foods, caffeine, Alcohol, Chocolate, peppermint, citrus fruits, tomatoes and spicy foods are some of the culprits. But it's somewhat of a trial and error to basically eliminate the ones you eat a lot n of and see if it helps. Then once you identify the worse ones reintroduce the others one at a time to narrow the bad ones. That's what I've heard others say. For me it wasn't a huge problem so I just cut back mainly coffee or do decaf. I had to quit Alcohol anyway for my transplant and it's not good for your heart anyway. Anything spicy is also a big problem. I know what your first thought is. They want me to quick all the good tasting foods. Hope that helps but also make sure you check with your doctors first as they may have a better idea what to avoid for you. Please let me.know if any other questions come up. I'm pretty familiar with the ins and outs of pacemakers. May I ask what kind you Have? Does it have a defibulator also?

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Replies to "Hi AJ from New York welcome to connect. Congratulations on your new pacemaker. I had one..."

Dear Dana,

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. I appreciate what you shared about your own experience and your thoughts about what could be causing the reflux and how to address it. It seems to be getting better now, so I'm hopeful that it was just an initial reaction to a few days in the ER, hospital and the surgery or perhaps the tylenol which I stopped. I received a standard pacemaker without defibrillator and it's working well so far. I still have some chest pain and can only sleep on my back so far, but I hear that will ease over time.

I'm encouraged to hear that the pacemaker was so helpful for you and so impressed that you've had a transplant. I hope everything is working out well with your new heart. Thank you again for your welcome. The Mayo site is such a wonderful resource. I send you all the best.