A couple weeks ago, I went to my new primary care doctor ( PCP ). She is very thorough and ordered a bunch of inhouse tests as well as some imaging.

One of the things done inhouse was an EKG. The tech hooked me up, and started the test after which she left the room. Then came back to complete the test. I said what is wrong. She said doctor will talk to you. Great!

Doctor says it appears that I have AFIB. Oh joy and rapture. Starts me on Eliquis blood thinner. She hooks me up with a great cardiologist who does an echocardiogram, and gives me a heart monitor to wear for a week.

Doctor calls me yesterday with results. Echo test is great. Pressure and heart rate are fine, valves work fine. no problem.

The heart monitor results say the same as echo test, plus there is no AFIB. Then he says, but there is something strange with your electrical system. Some signals are weak, and my heart stopped twice for 5 seconds in a week during the daytime. All news to me, I did not feel anything.

After a long discussion, I have an 8:30 AM appointment with an electrophysiologist to discuss a pacemaker today.

All this because of a botched EKG.

42 years in electrical construction and six master electricians licenses and I can't fix my own electrical problem.

Update ******Device installed 4/29. All went well. Just sore.

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

Glad to hear they can fix you back up to specs!

Ivan

Pete,

Just go to the tattoo parlor and get a post imbedded in your neck. Then, hook up a couple of 9 volt batteries and you should be good to go!

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

everyone that I know that has had a pacemaker was delighted with having it, and wished that they had done so sooner... glad they caught it before anything nasty happened.

Tell me you are not on a "Beta Blocker." I was on Metoprolol for years. A little over a year ago I noticed irregular beats/ stopped for several seconds/ heart rate 30 BPM. Stopped Metoprolol; now, heart rate 66, blood pressure meds down from 5 to 2, blood pressure 130/80 (in Dr's office) a significant drop. I went through all the tests/ monitoring for nothing. Switching Cardiologist was the "cure." Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

As someone who had just completed a battery of cardiological tests myself, I would suggest you seek a second opinion before taking any action based on one doctor's diagnosis.

My cardiologist told me all sorts of things that I KNEW were not only NOT necessary but had I gone through with them would've been harmful to me. They definately didn't like my refusal.

It had to do with milking the insurance. (for example- my cholesterol is outstanding, yet they wanted to put me on some expensive meds for it).

You may have a problem...or you may not. In this time I have found doctors to be more intersted in your wallet than your health.

Just some friendly advice.

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The Last Standing Knight

Wife got MRSA after a pacemaker battery change. While in there, they decided she hadn't needed the pacemaker after all.

Couple of years back I was hospitalized and they found a laundry list of things. Afib included, but it was way down the list. They seemed really puzzled that I had none of the usual symptoms. Cleared up on it's own (we were waiting for someone to wheel me down to have the heart shocked to restore normal rhythm when a guy ran in and told everyone my heart had resumed normal operation at 1700 the day before) and 30 days on a heart monitor showed no trace.

Bear in mind the Docs have bills to pay. AGREE with post #6.

Getting old is a privilege not afforded everyone . . . but it ain't for sissies !
Glad you got a good report - pacemakers are a lot more compact than just a few years ago and maintenance/adjustment a lot less invasive.

I survived my "widow maker" heart attack and then a few years later got titanium knees, so I'm satisfied to keep from having to add any other 'bionic' features as long as possible.

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Qui plantavit curabit

I am not on a beta blocker. Today my heart rate was 66 and BP was 124 over 68. I do take 5 mg of lisinopril

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Pete
I ain't no fortunate son

I take metroprolol. Prior to taking it, I had premature ventricular contractions 40% of the time. Since, 4%. Not that I notice either way.

Everybody's different.

Sure it's not just a corroded switch? Maybe you need to carry jumper cables

I have a PM. My heart rate without is 30-40. With the PM it is 62. But I also have AFib. So I take a blood thinner to keep strokes from occurring. I do take Metoprolol and another drug called Pacerone. My first cardiologist I went to wanted to do an atrial ablation. which is very invasive. When I suggested something a little less invasive he more or less cast me to the winds. Ablations such as that cost approx 80 grand...and the average rate of them working 1st time is about 15-20%...Talk about paying for the Beemer or Mercedes. Doc I finally got hooked up with got the AFib straightened out. the PM does very little for the AFib but it keeps the heart rate up so I don't pass out...but it lets them know if it does happen.

220 , 221 whatever it takes.

Find the Hot then grab the conduit. Should Help. Dad had Afib a while back Dr went down his throat with paddle and jumped heart back to rhythm. Hes 93. My best to you.

[QUOTE=The Last Standing Knight;



You may have a problem...or you may not. In this time I have found doctors to be more intersted in your wallet than your health.

Just some friendly advice.[/QUOTE]

I decided that years ago and I have saved the insurance co. and myself several dollars.
I also check on the side effects of medicine that they prescribe. I have very bad kidneys and when I had a knee replaced the doctor prescribed a pain med. that is hard on kidneys. I got the medicine changed.
A kidney dr. told me I needed to take a Potassium pill. I looked at the results and my Potassium was in the middle so I didn't that the pill but it was in the summer and I ate tomatoes at least twice a day and when I went back he said quit the Potassium pill. I told him I never started the pill and explained why my Potassium level was higher than the earlier reading. He cut that visit short
I really believe that if I didn't check behind the doctors I would be in worse shape than I am. I'm 82 and can still do some manual labor so I must be doing something right. Larry

I've been telling people for 25 years that you can't just be a patient. You have to be an informed consumer of medical services.

Being a paramedic has helped me do that, but there is a lot of information available these days. You also have to carefully evaluate that.

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) can be life threatening or it can be mild. It also has a lot of potential complications from heart attack, to Congestive Heart Failure, to Deep Vein Thrombosis, to Stroke.

Because the blood does not flow out of the Atria smoothly clots can form and travel to other parts of the body. In addition to rate control, blood thinners are used.

I'm pretty good at reading EKGs and if you know what to look for, it's easy to recognize. The key to recognizing any cardiac dysrhythmia is knowing what a normal rhythm looks like. Also, looking at a lot of them helps.

I've been lucky with primary care doctors because I can have intelligent conversations with them. I know enough about the commonly used medications for cardiac disease to ask good questions. On the few occasions where I've bee prescribed a med, I ask for the lowest acceptable dose.

Pacemakers have improved in every way since the first ones were used. Very, very few people have complications with implantation.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

What you really need is to get a new set of rings and a valve job. Maybe a new set of plugs while you're in there.

Attached Images

Piston heart.jpg (33.7 KB, 11 views)

I am PM dependent. I have been in AFib for almost 14 years. I am 4.5 years into my second ICD (I got 8.5 years out of the first). I am forever grateful that this technology has advanced this far.

The most reassuring asset I have is Ruthie. As a nurse she is a dogged medical advocate and every procedure and consult is under her scrutiny. Twice she cleared unseen roadblocks for me that I missed.

Had I to do it all over again I might go this route.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I still say that thing looks like a thermostat for a 1971 Chrysler.

I'm not a cardiologist, but have seen plenty over the last year. I would be highly suspicious of someone who wants to discuss a pacemaker due to some intermittent skipped beats and no other problems.

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Common sense isn't so common.

Just go to the grocery store, the prices will keep your heart racing. Oh I wish they would go back to paper bags the Plastic ones are hard to digest.

Medical care is big business, Revenue for Mayo Clinic last year was 17.9 Billion. The physicians are salaried so no benefit for them to order unnecessary tests.

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Super Snooper

Nor do they get a commission, kickback, or gift from so called "Big Pharma" for prescribing a particular medication. Most of the time they don't even get free samples to give to patients.

All of that went away about 30 years ago, along with the "education sessions" where the sales reps gave away a ton of free food.

Which is why people see so many commercials on TV for medications. The pharmaceutical companies are directly advertising to patients to get them to ask their doctors for specific drugs.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Pharmaceutical sales reps are still giving away samples, lunches, and swag. That hasn’t changed. My wife was a rep for years. She still has friends that do it. She is now a Nurse Practitioner and on the other end of things. She talks to reps that sell different drugs for neurological disorders.

Not quite the truth about being salaried. They are here too. The docs are salaried yes...but two things the conglomerates they work for. obe work them like rented mules.more so the specialists than the family practitioner. Not that they don't have good docs...they do. My eye surgeons I have had have been worked to death first guy was great. I've had a lot of dealings with them. anewfter 2 years he finally decided to get some vacation time. 1st week off in 2 years. My new eye surgeon sees 40-45 patients a day in the office... divide that up...about 15 minutes per patient. Then the other thing...if they send you to another specialist...it will be another in house guy. Keeps the money in house. Being worked like that makes for a lot of turnover. A lot of your office visits are handled by Nurse practitioners and physician assistants....I don't know how y'all feel but if I have a cardiac visit I want to see the cardiologist. seeing the NP or PA costs the same...but they pay them less than the Docs...more profit for the corporation. Medicine has changed over the last 40 years. and BTW if you have tests ordered...they are done in house too. Call me jaded. But it is about the money... Patients are all but guaranteed. We're getting older!

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Maybe regional, but where I worked that all went away in the late 1990s. A few of my wife's doctors have limited supplies of samples, but none of mine did.

Since we're now in Texas, we've had to get all new medical providers so I have no idea what it's like down here.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

I have been very fortunate with my medical care. The various specialists (endocrinologist and nephrologist are the main ones; cardiac consults for my transplant program) have been excellent. They take good care of me and are good at educating me. I don't have to enjoy this crud; I do have to appreciate it.

Post bypass, I had some Afib which delayed my release, and they did a follow up consult about 6 months later involving a 2 week monitor. Good results, nothing negative, and it was a big step to transplant clearance. I suspect that a big driver for some of the things described above is malpractice exposure. My doctors have expressed some anger at things they have had to address that other doctors screwed up.

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NHI, 10-8.

One of my grandfathers had a pacemaker implanted, quite a few years ago. When he came out of the anesthesia he realized it was in or near his right shoulder and would interfere with shouldering his shotgun. Made the MD switch to the other shoulder. Grandfather outlived three pacemakers, back in the 1960s-70s.

....wire and a couple of alligator clips!

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

My dad is going strong at 90 with those heart zapper gizmos in him.

I was at the service dept at the Toyota dealership when my AFIB decided to hit. Suddenly so short of breath I got ambulanced to the hospital. Had a procedure called a cardiovert where they shocked it back into rhythm. Been a couple of years, have some meds, everything going good.

I had a Pacemaker installed 5 years back. The doc asked me if shot a rifle after seeing my NRA cap and I said yes so he put into my left chest. So far so good.

My cardio guy told me my PVC was not going to kill me. So far he has been right.

Was that before or after you got your bill/estimate?

PVCs used to be considered an immediate threat and required treatment. As more research was done, that was found to not be the case.

The old rule used to be six or more PVCs a minute required treatment, but that's not at all the case now.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Just a state inspection so that part was free. Service manager was nice enough to deliver it to my house when they were done.

I do have AFIB, I would up in the hospital, and nearly died. Crash team hand to be called. I had to take the blood thinners, but shortly after I discussed with my Cardiologist having a "Watchman" implanted in my heart, in the left arterial appendage, where the blood pools and clots form which causes strokes. The Watchman procedure was done as an outpatient, was implanted similar as having a Stent placed, and went home within 6 hours of the implant. I need no blood thinners, but I do still take an 81 gr aspirin daily.

While I still have AFIB incidents, they are seldom and I just rest, sit down and relax, maybe some cool water to sip on. The incident will easily pass, I have only had two within the past year now.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244