Heart Condition

Hi to all

I would appreciate any advice or opinion.

I have a long time history of slow and irregular heart rate. I was diagnosed with congenital complete heart block 3 years ago and was implanted with an AICD. I am being paced about 97% in the atrium and 5% in the ventricle.

Recently, the doctor told me that I, actually, don

[yellowrose]

wow, that would be scarey i think i would be seeing another dr for their advice, i ws told i had mitro value and was treated for it for 8 years on meds and all than they found out i didnt so i guess its sort of the same but ,i didnt have anything inplanted either, yes get another dr to see what he thinks . i wish you the best . barbara

[maggiemag]

Wow, again!  This sounds bizarre.  Was this the same doctor that you saw before?  How did they diagnose the congenital heart block in the first place?  Just so you know, an AICD does not pace, it only can re-start a heart that goes into a fatal arrhythmia.  A pacemaker paces.  Sometimes people with heart failure can have both if they qualify for a bi-ventricular pacer, or people with rhythms like yours get a regular pacer but not an ICD.  Do you have the pacemaker interrogated every so often by a tech?  They can tell how often the pacemaker *kicks in*, in other words, how much the heart actually needs pacing.  I think they report it in percentages, like so-and-so's heart is pacing 75% of the time.  A lot depends on the type of pacmaker, and the underlying rhythm, plus the pacer settings.  Some have a fixed rate where the pacer kicks in below a rate of like, 70, or whatever is chosen.  At any rate, I would get another opinion with an electrophysiologist, an EP.