I just spoke with my doctors nurse and it shows you can always learn new things and you can also mess things up. Lol.
I hadn’t mentioned much about being a little bit nervous regarding my new pacemaker. The past two days my heart rate has been up. I am set for 80. I have noticed, and I know that my pacemaker could allow a higher if I am busy doing something. My heart rate would go up when I settle down it would settle but yesterday and today it was high for me and I wasn’t doing anything.
I am sharing this in case no one told you either. I knew my AV node had been ablated. That being said, it could no longer put me into tachycardia and the horrible a fib that I was getting. Although I knew it existed, I had ignored anything about the SA node. It wasn’t really mentioned probably because it was being left alone. But that being said what it does is very important so we need to remember it is there. It is the natural pacemaker I had them confused. This means whether it is me being active or stressed thinking too much, it will raise my heart rate to compensate and give me the blood flow. I need it is meant to do that, and it is not dangerous.
I was also told to stop checking my heart rate. Normally, I don’t check it that much usually in the morning or if I am feeling some thing different. Yesterday and today before I got out of bed, it was already high as I am set at 80. Today it was 105. So it made me nervous which makes it worse lol now if I had other symptoms that would be different but I really don’t. It could be simple as having a nightmare before I woke or waking to a loud sound like my dog barking perhaps?
Just in case anyone else here needs this info. I was a short both bye the tech at the clinic and my doctors nurse that what I am feeling, including the ache in my chest are all very normal. I was reminded that I had already been extremely beaten up by a fib before any of this was done and it is going to take a while for my body to adjust because it got used to the a fib. I also have a typical flutter which a pacemaker does not help although it never really bothers me. I’m not sure what I was expecting, although I think I expected to wake up to a miracle as if a film never existed . I will share the blame on that with the tech because I had mentioned how wonderful I felt when my cardioversion worked the first time, and I had heart rate of 82 and it was like a miracle. He said from what he understood that is how I will feel when I am hooked up. the nurse told me the complete opposite and said without realizing what he had told me, only a few people get lucky, and feel great right away. That’s when I told her what he had said, and she said oh no, that’s so not true.
Something amazing is also happening to my body day by day. It must be the circulation getting better because I even have pink toes now. My cousin said I look alive and a friend on the phone said I sound strong and I had not for quite a while according to him. I am still tired etc. but nothing like I was and mentally I feel so good. A friend and I were talking last week and I brought up some thing from the past. She asked me how old I was and could not get over my memory. I think many of us find the further back in time the better we remember though. I am seeing different things almost daily now that are improving.
The things we took for granted
Don’t be afraid if a pacemaker is suggested. Doctors do not take these lightly. It usually is because you’re running out of options and they want you to have quality of life. Day by day things are getting better and new things are coming out. I know because my pacemaker was just approved in October. prior to that there was no pacemaker for me and I would’ve progressed into heart failure and then need a transplant I live in a little town in southeast Texas and this was all available here. Oh sure I could go to Houston and try other things. I am happy with what I got. Perhaps if I were younger, I would’ve gone for something different, but I have improved my quality of life in less than two weeks. If you like, and respect and trust your doctor, you are in good hands. Once I did with mine, I had no doubts. Whatever time I have left, I want to be fun. This is what one me over because I did not feel alive sitting like a lump on my couch constantly in pain if I tried to get up and walk or even breathe. I found the light at the end of the tunnel even though I have more healing to do I am already happy about what I have. PS I am impatient just remember, just like at the hairdresser there is no magic wand lol our bodies undergo trauma, and just like a bruise on any part of your body. It has to heal.
