28 year old with a pacemaker

Hello, I am a 28 year old female and had a very big scare about a month ago.  I passed out in the emergency room and my heart stopped for 28 seconds.  The cardiologist that I saw at the hospital told me i needed to have a pacemaker implanted to protect me from my heart stopping in the future.
My doctor told me that I have "sick sinus syndrome".  I am very active and what i thought was a very healthy 28 year old girl.  Has anyone out there heard of having issues like this at such a young age??  

[ireneo]

Oh yes. There are pediatric cardiologists to help children with heart problems. I have a friend who's in her 20's and she has an ICD (an implantable defibrillator) because of her serious rhythm problems. It just happens. She's very happy and healthy and active too. She just needs that little gadget in case her heart decides to act up. Good luck with your procedure.

[616143]

I am 29 years old and am getting dizzy to the point of feeling like i am going to faint....Drs are recommending a pacemaker for me but dont wanna do it until I get to the point of fainting....you are lucky they did the procedure and didnt just wait for you to get worse like they are doing to me...good luck

[jpcox]

Do you mind me asking why you were in the hospital? Have you ever had any other type of episodes in relation to your heart? Was that the first time? Do you know if a person that has sick sinus, does it always show up on a ekg? Just curious, hang in there and best wishes.  

[Gabriella79]

I was taken to emergency room because I had passed out twice earlier that morning.  I woke up and went down stairs...I was washing dishes and got very hot.  I grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it.  Immediately I started to feel a horrible chest pain.  I also felt very weak and faint.  I tried to crouch down to put my head between my legs and the next thing I know I am on the ground and my boyfriend is calling my name.  I was totally blacked out and could only hear and not see.  He came downstairs and I tried to stand up and walk to him.  I only got about two feet and and passed out again.  He caught me and said my eyes rolled to the back of my head and i started to shake and twitch.  He also thought I may have stopped breathing.  We went to the emergency room and they didn't think anything was wrong with me until I passed out right after they did an EKG.  They said my heart stopped for 28 seconds.  The Cardiologist came in to see me and said he thought my issue would be easily corrected by a pacemaker.  I was having issues prior.    About 8 months ago I fell asleep and woke up extremely hot.  I went to go grab some water and must have passed out and woke up on the kitchen floor. I would also be laying in bed and have a weird pain in my left arm and I would freak out and feel like I couldn't breathe. I would type my symptons in to web md and a panic attack was always listed as an option so I just figured it was that.
I told the doctors this and they aren't sure if any of it is linked, but my symptoms can be indicative of an arythmia.  Apparently my heart is completely healthy, my sinus node just doesn't function.

[Gabriella79]

According to my cardiologist my pacemaker is a preventative measure to make sure I wouldn't faint and have it be fatal.  If I was ever driving a car or something like that where I could pass out and possibly hurt myself or someone else- the pacemaker won't let me blackout.  It keeps my heartrate going to 50 beats per minute always.  It can apparently save your life - Something called Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the number one killer of healthy young people in our country and it can be caused by arythmias such as sick sinus syndrome.   What evdience are your Doctor's going off of that they have recommended the pacemaker for you?

[jpcox]

I am so glad you were in the hospital when you had that episode and they could document it. I am 28 also, and dealing with an irregular heartbeat. Sick Sinus Syndrome is that something you were born with, or is it something that happens over time? When are you going to have the procedure?
Jennifer

[Donna-lee]

Hi there, My hubby Stu has a pacemaker for sick sinus syndrome too. He too went from feeling fine except for the occasional dizzy spell to a heart rate of 25 at rest. He has had loads of tests and his heart is structually sound but his sinus node doesn't function properly any more. He leads a relatively normal life although has a couple of other probs, he developed atrial flutter and has had an ablation too.