Has anyone had an insertable Cardiac Monitor?

Larry -- I feel for your situation. It can be so frustrating sometimes. Back in 2013, I went to a Christmas sing and by the fifth song I was gasping for air. My heart started doing some really strong palpitations and I couldn't catch my breath. There were some EKG abnormalities and my doctor ordered a pretty thorough cardiac work-up. The Holter revealed lots of PVCs, PACs and some ventricular tachycardia which was probably the most concerning to them. I had an echocardiogram which was essentially normal. Also a stress test which had ST wave abnormalities but which was apparently a false positive (happens 50% of the time for women). I was sent onto a cardiologist who did a nuclear stress test which came out beautifully. At the cardiology follow-up, the cardiologist told me that I just have a "special" heart. Aw, ain't that sweet....several thousand dollars later. I'm a medical mystery on many accounts and so hey, just add it to the pile. It wasn't until spring of 2016 when I saw the cardiologist again that he tried an event monitor because the palpitations I was having were different, more fluttery, higher up and took my breath away. Of course, the event monitor showed basically nothing besides the usual PVCs, PACs. So he decided to have the Reveal LINQ placed. I wish it had been explained to me a little better though. I thought for around $2,000 my cost that that was a pretty good price to have 24/7 heart monitoring. But what he didn't tell me is that it doesn't really monitor all the PACs, PVCs but is programmed to catch atrial fibrillation, tachycardia or bradycardia. I guess if I hit my Patient Assistant, it will mark the read-out, if I am having symptoms -- and then would show an arrhythmia. So I just find that I'm a little disappointed in what this Reveal LINQ cannot do. I haven't had that weird rhythm return either. Not that I want it to return because it was terribly uncomfortable but I certainly hope that it does while I have this thing in so that maybe it can all be figured out.

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I have the loop recorder because I pass out randomly with no warning at all. I do feel symptoms, (fluttery pounding, racing) but every time I reported them, they seemed annoyed. Finally they straight up told me, we only want to know if you pass out. So I would patient activate when that happened, and it showed nothing. We recently decided to have it removed, and while I’m waiting for them to set that up, I’ve begun getting red alerts in my chart. I get an automated response, but they’ve stopped answering my messages. So I guess I don’t know what’s going on, if I’m still having it removed? Or if I should go back on metoprolol. Communication would be great.

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I read your story with some interest because I found this sight because I too have the same implant as you have, mine put in July 2019, after I suffered a stroke in June and my cardiologist suggested I wear a halter monitor. My daughter’s friend, who is a cardiologist suggested the Linc monitor because of its effectiveness and with it being in the summer and I am more active, my family was afraid that the halter monitor wouldn’t pick up as much as this device. I actually was put under anesthesia, in a hospital setting with an overnight stay (possibly due to the prior stroke) ? No problem with my monitor in my case except for a year in, I had to send away for a replacement, since it just stopped sending transmissions!!!! I kept getting error messages! It turned out I had a hole in my heart which was repaired with more surgery. My question now is…as I am going into my 3rd year with my monitor, has anyone chosen to have theirs removed? I understand the battery life is done after that right? Do we run any risks keeping it in? And I’m assuming it’s another surgical procedure coming out!
Thanks for any information on this..

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