I'm 53 and a new member. My story is that from June this year I began having multiple palpitations on a daily occurrence,went to gp,and a&e as very distressing.was kept in overnight but everything was ok they said. I suffer from a condition called ' fabry's syndrome ' which does/and can affect the heart. At a routine yearly check up appointment with my heart specialist ( in august) I disclosed my problems,he ordered a 3 day holter monitor which detected fast arrhythmias of over 200bpm...i recieved a call on Tuesday, in hospital wed,op on Friday(24th aug) to fit an icd. I've had a difficult time firstly with the palpitations then with coming to terms with the op,and had on going issues of feeling peculiar ever since. I've been suffering with severe breathlessness and feeling dizzy,chest tightening,and feeling unwell on occasions. Through the home monitor they have picked up these problems so they keep calling me back in to clinic,adjusting the device and increasing my meds bisoprolol. Does anyone have or had these issues? What did doctors do about them? I am getting really frustrated and down as thought life would be better after the op but atm it's not.
Life after an icd: I'm 53 and a new... - British Heart Fou...
Life after an icd
Hi Heartofsoul , I also have an ICD (see healthunlocked.com/bhf/post..., and have in the past had moments of breathlessness and dizziness. I'm on bisoprolol (beta blocker) and ramipril (ACE inhibitor) and they have helped with the palpitations, although is a bumpy road and I still occasionally get palpitations, especially whenever I'm adjusting the medication. It may be that the device still needs further tweaking, so that it will help pace your heart (if your ICD has that function), or your medication still isn't quite right. There are lots of options available, e.g. increasing bisoprolol, changing to another beta blocker, changing to another type of medication etc., so don't give up hope. Unfortunately some of this seems trial and error but you'll get there.
Than you pikaia, yes the doctors are trying different things such as increasing my dose of bisoprolol and tweaking the device.im now on maximum dose 10 mg to see if this stops the vt's....next step is to try another beta blocker if this doesn't work.fingers crossed it does
Good luck. Let us know how you get on.
Yes I will do and I wish you luck with yours too
Hi. If your ICD doesn't have pacing functions (or similar) it won't actually be doing anything for your symptoms, it will just be monitoring in the background, ready to shock your heart back into a safe rhythm if you go into cardiac arrest. My ICD (a CRT-D) also acts as a pacemaker and resynchronises the two sides of my heart, so I have found an improvement to my symptoms since I got it, but that's not because of the defibrillator element. In my experience, it takes a lot of tweaking (of device and meds) to find the optimum levels, i.e. what helps in the long-term without too many side-effects in the short-term. Hopefully your team will find that level for you soon. Definitely keep feeding back about how you are feeling and don't give up hope - it's early days yet in the scheme of things. Good luck!
Thankyou laura_dropstitch for your reply,my icd is dual chamber so it does have pacemaker and tries to pace my vt's and that's what is making me feel weird and experience symptoms but remaining positive that things will improve.trying an increase in meds so hopefully it will help
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