racing heart, coffee, being back!

[Thinline]

I'm sitting here with such relief that I can post here again. This morning I woke from having such horrid palps. Resting pulse was 125bpm, shot up to 140 the moment I stood up, this is the upper limit on my pacemaker. The oddest thing is that I just had a cup of coffee - I very very seldom drink anything with caffeine as I have an average pulse rate of 110bpm, but since I had the coffee my pulse has slowed down to 113bpm. It seems very odd as I'd expect it to increase my heart beat, not slow it down. Maybe I was a bit panicky cause it was so fast but my hubby has woken up now and he made the coffee for me so maybe it's just relief that he's awake and I can tell him that I'm feeling offish which might have a calming relief type of effect.

Oh dear, I think I spoke too soon - pulse has just shot up again suddenly and I can feel my ventricular lead pacing, usually only my atrial lead paces so I notice when the ventricular one starts up, it feels funny. Wonder what is going on? Maybe I should double my Coralan dose this morning even though I'm already on the max dose, it definitely works with slowiing down the rate, the best heart med I've ever taken to be honest!

[PikaPika88]

Hi Thinline, after the coffee your pulse might be raised above the set upper limit so the pacemaker paced it down.  I also know when my ventricular lead is pacing.  It is like an express train running in my chest. Sweat a lot as well.  It did that to me every morning when I awake (eye not open yet)!  What is your sensation when the ventricular lead is pacing?  If you've your av node ablated, your ventricle should be 100% paced.  I'm confused.  May be I'm wrong.

Anyway, nice to see you post again.  Take care.

[Thinline]

Hi Pika. Indeed I have had my AV node ablated but it seems to have grown back in a slightly different place! My ventricular lead paces a lot of the time but sometimes I just feel it very strongly, like a little shock in the lower chest, most of the time I don't notice it.

Last week my son was sick in hospital and I was sitting on this squashed little trolley in the ER and was sort of hunched over and wham, I could feel the ventricular pacing really strongly, it was horrible, I jumped up so fast I don't think I've moved that quickly for years! Didn't know I still could!!! Yuk it's a horrible feeling.

When my pacemaker reaches its upper limit I go into heart block. Everything goes totally haywire. Skip so many beats I almost keel over. They've increased the power to max into the vent lead now to try prevent this, but sometimes I still have a rate of around 240 in the atrium with my pacemaker pacing at a dreadfully slow 70 in the ventricle. That's when I really do keel over. One of these days I'm going to bash my head in on something on my way down. I try stay lying down when I start skipping beats now just in case I pass out. At least then I'm closer to the ground. Plus I weigh as much as a middle sized elephant, so hitting the deck can definitely lead to serious injury. I've been on so much cortisone for so long now that I've turned into a real jumbo - very depressing since I can't come off the meds because my asthma is so out of control.

Oh well, such is life hey?