confused

[slhlovescats]

i am a 27 year old female and i was told i needed a pacemaker due to pauses (4.7 sec) while sleeping and bradycardia (down in the 30's). i was told i had a second degree heart block. so i received the pacemaker. but  i was reading some posted questions from other members with pauses and you say pauses are normal, so why did i need a pacemaker? when they were testing me for this i was also severely anemic (have had 4 blood transfusions in the last year) and i was also always low on potassium (3.0) i just wonder if i really needed a pacemaker

[grendslori]

You did need a pacemaker inserted. When the heart rate is in the 30s the heart can actually stop beating.

[ireneo]

Can they interrogate your pacemaker like they do an ICD? I'm not sure if that's done. If they can, you may want to keep a record of time and date when you have these episodes and they can try to tie it in with your heart's rhythm at the time. It may not be heart related at all but it would be nice to know.

[slhlovescats]

hi, thanks for your post. i was wondering if you might know why ever since i got my pacemaker i get these episodes where it feels like gravity is pulling at my insides. my left arm feels heavy like i cant lift it. its really scary when it happens and my doc has no idea what it could be. i even went to er thinking i was having a stroke.

[ireneo]

Some pauses are longer than others. A pause that amounts to a single beat is normal for standard PVC's and the compensatory pause. Your pauses and heart rate in the 30's is not OK. Thus the pacemaker.