Encouraging Husband

[Nancy3671]

My husband goes from a-fib to a heartbeat that averages 40 beats a minute. He feels he does not need a pacemaker because he can work steady, is not dizzy nor faint and lives a normal life. After seeing the good results of my 93yr old mom receiving a pacemaker, I , as his wife, would love for him to consider getting one. I fear his heart will just stop one day...it scares me. How can I encourage him to consider this procedure, or , if he seems fine without one, should he not worry about it? His doctors want to consult with him aobut this soon- think they see him as needing one if he consents...

[cindy707]

When you say he goes from a fib to bradycardia at 40 beats per minute you haven't told us what his heartrate is in a fib...or how frequently this happens to him.. There are alot of other factors here...one is what is his age? Is he active physically as in exercising....is he in good physical shape....there are so many factors here.  does his heart doc have him on medications....is this something new for him or has it been going on for years..i think even perfectly healthy people with no issues with the hearts worry about their hearts just suddenly stopping one day. It is so wonderful that you care so much about your husband that you are trying to protect him but transferring your fears to him may not be the best thing....there are other questions as well...like does he have any other underlying illness that he is treated for...so many questions for personally to be able to give my personal opinion here Nancy....having a pacemaker implanted is no walk in the part for anyone and in the end it is your husbands body nor yours and sometimes we have to respect the ones we love wishes....i would let the docs make the final determination in weighing out the odds on this one........good luck to you and your family

[itdood]

I've always been told that if bradycardia is symptom free, there's no need for a pacemaker.  Why fix something that isn't broken?

On the other hand, I don't know the entire story of his heart.  There are many more components to analyzing what his condition is than just a-fib episodes and brady.

A great question you and/or he should ask his cardiologist is, why are you recommending the pacemaker when he finds the symptoms (or lack thereof) completely tolerable?  Is there something else on his EKG that justifies the procedure?

I really doubt his heart will just stop from brady.  I hate making blanket statements, but in my experience, sudden cardiac arrest is usually the result of a harmful ventricular arrhythmia, not bradicardia per se.  You could make the argument,  I guess, that bradycardia might trigger a harmful ventricular arrhythmia but I'm not aware of any mechanism.  His doctors would know more.