Misdiagnosis & impact having an unnecessary pacemaker.

Posted by latuma @latuma, Mar 8 5:16am

I was suffering regular bouts of low blood pressure for about one to one and one half hours per day.
It was assumed that this was caused by my historically low rested palse rate in the low 40s so a pacemaker was fitted but to no effect. I found out accidentally that it was caused by Symbrinza eye drops that I was prescribed to treat long term glaucoma.
As the top pulse rate for the pacemaker is only 150 per minute it has added about five minutes off my 5km jogging times. My age 79.
Sound familiar to anyone?

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wcuro | @wcuro | May 11 6:40am

Get one or two more opinions. If there is agreement that there was a misdiagnosis, have the ICD removed.

william66 | @william66 | May 11 11:34pm

Just something anyone with pacemaker or defibrillator should be aware of.

I was advised by my doctor to have a defibrillator installed (there is probably a better word for this) after a heart attack and a diagnosis of heart failure. It went off several times as it was set at 160. However, after about nine months, I was feeling increasingly sluggish and weak. I finally headed overseas to see my doctor, but I passed out before I got to the hospital and the taxi driver carried me in to the ER of my hospital. I was told my oxygen level was in the low eighties. I was given transfusions for several days to raise it. I was not told how many, but evidently quite a few. I woke up several days later and was told the defibrillator was covered with staph bacteria and had been removed. I also had developed sepsis, which is why I felt so bad. The surgeon who removed it said the device was covered with staph "like moss on a tree". I was asked if I wanted it reinstalled. No thanks.

I spent a month in the hospital on very strong antibiotics and another month staying with a friend using TICC lines to dose myself three times a day with the same stuff. After two months, I was free of sepsis and able to return home.

I had been working out everyday and spent 40 minutes of that on a treadmill, working up to a 15 grade and 4 mph. I wore a heart monitor and eventually I was able to work out at 80% of my max heart rate. I have continued with that every other day, lifting light weights and free exercising in between.

Any time I get to feeling a little weary or off, I head in for a sepsis check. The defibrillator is no longer there, but the sepsis was so hard to get rid that I may overdo my checkups. I get a complete blood test so I am able to look at other things as well. It is comforting to know my numbers are good.

I presume a pacemaker might carry the same risk of infection as a defibrillator, but I don't know for sure.

So if you have one of these devices and start feeling like something is not right, you might want to visit your doctor or hospital. Getting rid of sepsis was a time consuming and uncomfortable chore.