The dreaded Bradycardia is back.

Hi all, the dreaded bradycardia is back I've been feeling a bit off over the last few days but tonight I can't get my heart rate up and it's sitting around 40-45 since 6pm. I'm feeling a bit tired and have no energy even when I walk about or go upstairs it only increases to about 52 before dropping again within seconds.

I'm fitted with an ilr (implant loop recorder) so I've pressed my key fob to highlight the episodes for the pacing team to see I also have a exercise stress test booked for next wk so hopefully something will come of it and compare notes with the pacing team.

Cheers

Taz.

[Dragonfish]

Hi Taz, I hope you get some useful results from the pacing team and the stress test. My bradycardia was not really bothering me apart from some puffing and blowing getting going when exercising, and brief woozy spells lasting a few seconds that I since found out coincided with sinus pauses between beats. I was asked to monitor BP and HR for a week and it dropped to around 35-42 over the weekend I was recording data. My husband has a Kardia mobile device which I used to record some traces on his phone which showed the sinus pauses which were causing the woozy spells. The GP ordered a 72 hour holter monitor test and this confirmed the low HR and sinus pauses, and I was advised to have a pacemaker fitted. Now 4 weeks post implant and PM set at 50 bpm, so should not drop below this or allow the long pauses I was experiencing. I hope they get to the bottom of what is going on for you and find a way to remedy it for you. Good luck!

[Hidden in reply to Dragonfish]

Hi Dragonfish, thanks for the reply I hope you're well since the pacemaker was fitted and now on the road to recovery. How long have you been suffering with the bradycardia for? Mine has been going on for about 4 years now with many trips to a&e with a resting hr around 30. There are days when I feel totally wiped out with no energy but I'm always on the go in work or at home so it can be frustrating at times when I have these episodes. Even now while busy pottering about in the garden my hr is just sitting at 50 so hopefully it will pass over the next few days. I have an exercise stress test on Thursday so fingers crossed it will show up something which I don't want but I want answers if that makes sense and they are talking about fitting me with a pacemaker too. Keep us posted on you're progress.Best wishes

Taz.

[Dragonfish in reply to Hidden]

Hi Taz, I don’t know how long I have had the Bradycardia. My resting HR has always been on the low side, around 50-55bpm but this was not a problem. My HR naturally increases with exercise but I was always slow getting going, so needed to warm up, but then I could match my husband’s pace with hillwalking, cycling etc, but using monitors at the gym, I could not get my rate over about 120 bpm even when going full speed on the treadmill. My husband’s equivalent was about 150 - 160 bpm, so I seem to be generally around 20% lower than him. My recent episode was only since March this year when low HR was identified following an unrelated medical procedure during recovery when I kept setting off the monitors as dropping to around 44 bpm. The whole getting a pacemaker fitted episode was very sudden and unexpected for me, so can’t really say I feel any different except a bit less breathless getting started up a hill, and no woozy incidents. Hopefully once the recovery 6 weeks are done and dusted I can get back to cycling, hiking etc. Sorry your low HR has been bothersome and going on for so long. It would be good for you to get some answers.

[Hidden in reply to Dragonfish]

Hi Dragonfish, like you my HR dropped into the mid 40s while in theatre having a unrelated procedure done. I was awake during the operation and the monitors kept alarming but what made me laugh was the look on the nurses faces looking at the monitors then back at me wondering what was happening. I was sort of relieved in a way knowing that they could see what I've been telling everyone over the last few years. I hope your recovery goes well and it's not too long before your exercising again.

[Wingnutty]

My heart rate is similar to yours and has been for many years now, although I am on a small dose of Bisoprolol (1.25mg) which makes the problem a bit worse. It doesn't bother me having the low heart rate at rest, but what does bother me is that my heart rate doesn't go up much when I do light exercise, such as walking. I think this is why I am getting angina on exertion. When I used to walk briskly, my heart rate would be about 90BPM and I could walk up hills easily, but now even walking any distance on the flat over about 200M brings on angina and my heart rate only goes up to about 60. I can't get breathless while walking anymore, because the pain stops me from getting to that point. I have tried jogging for a couple of hundred meters and that does make me breathless and my heart rate goes up a lot more to something approaching what I would expect. My angina when doing that jog is less than when I walk, but as my heart rate comes down again after the jog, the angina increases for a couple of minutes until my heart rate reaches the mid 40s again. I have a telephone appointment with a cardiologist on the 10th June, so I will be telling him all about this.

[Hidden in reply to Wingnutty]

Hi wingnutty, thanks for the reply. I too was on bisoprolol but it was stopped due to my HR dropping too low and it was making me feel very tired and lightheaded and I just couldn't function at all. I'm sorry to hear the angina is stopping you from exercising hopefully once you've had the telephone appointment they can get things sorted out for you and it won't be long before your running again.