Has anyone had an insertable Cardiac Monitor?

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.

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.

I have not heard about some of these problems. I had eanlarged, complete heart block, no native rhythm and 6 pacemakers put in since 1992z had vtach and after a scare they put in a CRT-D. Made by Boston Scientific it is a cardiac resynchronization therapy with pacemaker and defibrillator. I use a Latitude monitoring system and this has been working quite well since 2018. I go to device clinic quarterly and they
Remotely view rhythm streets and will call me if they see anything unusual. I also take blood thinners (Eliquis), and a cocktail of drugs
Daily. Good luck to you all.

Device uncovered one episode of asymptomatic Afib and asymptomatic continual nocturnal bradycardia with pauses and restarts.

Recovery from implant and removal minimal (7-10 days) with usual cautions RE: wound care. Scar barely visible.

Good morning! Yes, I have the Abbott loop reader. Since insertion I have had various episodes with no feedback from cardiologist. I have known Afib. When I ask if anything has been seen, he avoids answering. Not sure of the value of this monitor??

I had a Boston Scientific loop recorder implanted in August 2022 to look for AFIB. I had a catheter ablation done in Feb 2019 and been AFIB free since then. The reason I elected to have the procedure is I have decided not to stay on blood thinners for the remainder of my life. My argument is if I no longer have AFIB then the risk of stroke should be the same as the general population for my age demographic. I use a Kardia mobile ECG that is very accurate which prior to the ablation was always in agreement with the ECG in the doctors office. So, the bottom line is if the implanted Boston scientific loop recorder picks up AFIB then I will reconsider my position on taking an anticoagulant. My electrophysiologist is in agreement.