Oh, Yvonne. I'm so sorry you are dealing with this; I'm sure your anxiety over it is pushing your HR up a bit. I hope that the situation will resolve itself and you won't have to have that dreaded procedure. Hugs to you.
This might need a different thread, but a close friend of mine is suffering from something called "POTS." It causes her heart rate to spike VERY high, just upon standing up from a chair or the slightest activity. I mean like 185 BPM! (She's in her mid-60s and diabetic.) She gets dizzy and weak and has a "heavy" feeling in her extremities. I've been trying to learn about POTS but it seems to be a mystery. I have wondered if a pacemaker is ever used to slow a heart rate?
A friend that had his single chamber pacemaker of many years changed two years ago to the dual chamber unit has done well with a slight energy loss. He does notice more problems with powerful electromagnetic radiofrequency energy than he noticed with the single chamber unit. Using a cell phone doesn't seem to cause noticeable problems, but visiting one of his children that lives close to a powerful cell tower does create issues. He also noticed problems at a family reunion at the dam under the massive high voltage transmission lines. I hope your problem ceases and you can continue with the single unit.
@Yvonne Smith - my husband heart rate is 35 - 48. His is a genetic issue. His youngest brother had to have pacemaker several years ago because his heart grew worse. Even hubby's daughter has this issue and is the military. Their is due to a leaky valve I think. I am getting concerned for hubs as he ages . We take our BP least once a week to keep tabs on bp and heart rate. I guess what i am saying is maybe is maybe it will correct itself at some point. Regardless you do need to see doctor. Hopefully no other surgery is needed.
I was thought to have POTS but one cardiologist says my problem is more related to the effects of my Hiatal Hernia and Vestibular Hydrops. POTS is one of those things that is defined by symptoms, not specific testing. Who knows, maybe many with pots have vestibular problems also, but finding a neuro-otologist that can diagnose such is difficult and also prohibitive to anyone on medicare as neuro-otologist refuse medicare because they get paid the same as an ENT doc that has lesser training and expertise. @Beth Gallagher if your friend can afford it, I would suggest visiting a neuro-otologist for testing and also a gastrologist for an endoscopy. My heart rate changes just bending down. I thought it was maybe the a-fib I had as a late teen and in my early in my 20's returning, but the docs say no, just how Hiatal Hernia and inner ear disorder can affect one such as myself.
I believe that you should definitely be concerned about your husband’s heart rate, @Hedi Mitchell . Even if it has always been low, you should probably monitor it to see how low it is going. Until I got my Apple Watch, I had no way of knowing what my heart was doing while I slept, and once I had the watch and the sleep app, I can now tell what my overnight heart rate is. If you are only taking your BP once a week, you are not necessarily learning the whole story of what your heart is doing. Mine was at a good rate in the daytime when I was active, but at night, it dropped down, slowly becoming lower and lower as time went on. Once it was starting to go from low 40’s into the high 30’s overnight, I though it was time to talk with my heart doctor about it, and he said that as my heart got weaker, it would keep getting worse and slower. The pacemaker keeps it from going too slow because it kicks in when it gets below 60bpm, but it does not stop the high heart rates, which is what I am having right now along with the a-fib. I can’t say enough times how important I think it is for seniors to have an activity tracker that monitors heart rate. There are a lot of different ones listed on Amazon, so you should be able to find something that works with whatever brand of cell phone you have.
She's not on Medicare yet; I believe she's 63 so she has regular insurance. She's had all kinds of testing after going to the ER with the rapid heart rate a few times that scared her half to death. I thought she was having some diabetes-related problem because she really doesn't manage her blood glucose very well. Anyway, I was mostly wondering if pacemakers are ever used to control runaway heart rates. I know very little about them.
What they told me was that the pacemaker can stop a person from having a low heart rate, because it starts working when your heart slows down below what the pacemaker is set for. They said that it does not do anything to stop the tachycardia, which is what people with POTS are having, triggered by standing up too fast. Since my pacemaker speeds up when it thinks I am going to be active, it would probably only make the POTS worse, by accelerating the tachycardia. One of the things that I read about stopping the tachycardia, is to hold your finger firmly on your neck where you can feel the blood rushing through. I am not sure quite how this slows it down, but I have found that it does help me. It doesn’t affect a-fib, just the tachycardia, and cuts the time down to just a few minutes , most of the time.
That's because that is where the vagus nerve is. Stimulation of the vagus nerve can slow the heart rate.
Thanks, Yvonne. That's just the info I was looking for. Currently she is somewhat controlling POTS by drinking large amounts of water and taking salt tablets, of all things. (Prescribed by her cardiologist.) It seems to have come on rapidly and is getting worse, symptom-wise. Very disruptive and she lives alone so gets scared easily. Sorry for the thread hijack.
The only way I have heard of using a pacemaker with tachycardia was to do an ablation to slow the heart rate, then use the pacemaker to speed it up. That sounds sketchy to me.
That is what they did, @John Brunner . I have had 2 ablations, which mostly stopped the afib, and then because my heart was wearing out and getting slower, my doctor put in a pacemaker to keep it from continuing to slow down more and more. Unfortunately, they cant do any more ablations on my heart, and they can’t do anymore cardioversions to shock my heart back in rhythm, and he said that giving me the 2 lead pacemaker was the last option possible for me. I am hoping that the a-fib stops. I have been under a lot of stress for the last week, and I think that might be what has started the a-fib again. I already take amioderone for the a-fib, and it is bad for my liver and kidneys, so I can’t really take more of that either.
I hope you do well if you get the pacemaker. One thing you will get is probably several preventative medicines to help the heart. I take 5 every morning and I know for sure the blood pressure med works well, but this one tiny little pill I take is to help my heart grow new blood vessels on the surface of the heart muscles. Every morning after taking the little pill I have about two hour before I feel a very slight little burn and I know it is busy working but that goes away within a minute or two. I have never had a bad ekg or blood work, the blood work is one of the most important identifiers of a problem. Two times a year is a good investment. One thing that is commonly misread or missed is the ultra sounding of the upper body, but I have even had lower extremities such as my toes checked. I was a smoker for many years but it has been 35 years since I quit and my first ultra sounding the technician told me for my age and being a prior smoker my neck artery looked like someone that had never smoked. When you get a good report it makes you feel much better. Long Long Life and Good Health to ya.