Hello, thankyou for this forum, I think it is great the way you help poeple! I have several questions but first I'll give you my history. I am and 18 year old female. I had an endocardial pacemaker put in when I was 11 for congenital CHB. In Sept. 99 I had a laser lead extraction. During the surgery the laser lacerated my SVC from "well above the azygous vein near the innominate vein, onto the right atrium." They preformed a sternotomy in the cath lab, then tansfered me to the OR and put me on bypass to do a pericardial patch repair. They also closed a 4mm PFO, removed my edocardial leads, and placed an epicardial pacing system. After the surgery I had pneumonia and a 655cc plural effusion that required thoracyntesis. I had an echo soon after surgery and my cardiologist said everything was fine, but 1 month later it showed that my heart wasn't pumping as well do to emergency cariopulmonary bypass, and "getting the **** kicked out of me during surgery." I was put on Digoxin and Captopril. I've had several echo's since then and it has been improving up to EF 44%. But after my last echo my Doctor siad that my EF was between 38 and 56, the really couldn't tell. He said I was fine and to come back in 3 months. They did the echo first with my pacer on, then again with it off. My question is, how can you get such varried results? I know that the way the heart beats on and echo is different when you have a pacemaker but, How does the different activation path caused by the pacemaker change the echo results? Change the EF? Could you explain to me how epicardial leads are replaced? Another question I have is about noise reversion. My pacer goes into this mode when I touch my shower faucets, go near pool lights, touch a pan on the stove, and several other documented places. My doctor has throughly investigated this, sending my pacer nurse, a local rep from the company and Larry Selznic(a guy for LA that works for the pacesetter comp) to my house with all of their equipment. He also siad the asked a bunch of other doctors at the NASPE meeting. We know what is going on, but the only reason my Dr. can decide on is that my unipolar leads are acting like a big antenea. Do you have any ideas of how to program around this? It isn't dangerous because I have and underlying rhythm of about 50, but it is kinda annoying. And I don't see how if my pacer "is function right" how I am the only one in the world that this happens to; I know I'm not the only one who takes a shower, or touches the refridgerator! Thankyou so much for your time, I really appriciate being able to get my lingering questions answered!