What People With Pots Benifit Fropm A Pacemaker?

[nikigrl8883]

hey i was reading that some people with pots have pascemakers put in .......who is eligable fo that and how do the docs determine if u need one? not that i want one lol....i was just curious...............blah im sick today threw up last night...and still feel sick maybe i have tthe flu or potssss again lol

[MomtoGiuliana]

Pacemakers are not used to treat POTS. They might be used after an ablation. Some POTS patients have had ablations even though this was probably not the best treatment regime. I am sure that the members with pacemakers can give you more details.

Katherine

[Sophia3]

POTS is high heart rate.

Pacers for SLOW heart rate..bradycardia.

You don't need an ablation to get a pacer. But pacers can cause issues and should only be a last resort by THOROUGH docs....some with pacers have developed profound hypotension and can still faint but if they fainted with greater frequency, the pacers can help with that.

Hopefully somebody with a pacer can give more details

[yogini]

I believe pacers are used more for another form of dysautonomia called NCS - although even then, they are not too common. I agree that it's pretty unusual for POTS, except for people with failed ablations.

[Dawg Tired]

I didn't have an ablation, but a Holter monitor showed my HR was dropping into the 30's. I have NCS.... So I ended up with this da_m pacemaker.... I STILL run 180-190 HR and it does nothing for that.... It is VERY expensive and I am stuck with it for life.... No, they can't just "take it out" if you don't like it. YOU ARE STUCK!!!!

It did nothing to help the way I feel - NOTHING to help the syncope, NOTHING to help me go back to work. I am still short of breath when I walk across the floor.

I have a huge (5-inch) scar on my chest and every 3 months I have to get a pacer check on the phone. Every year I have to go to the EP and they check out the battery and so forth. When the battery gets low I will have to get another one. Will they just hook it up to the old leads that are now imbedded in my heart muscle? no, because the techlology will change and they can't really take out the old ones without open heart surgery.... I know a lady who had 8 leads in her heart and finally had to have open heart surgery to have them removed.

So.... pacemaker for POTS???? Well.... I would be very careful!

[AJVDK]

Be carfill with thinking about a pacemaker. I was told I had SVT, and that the only way to take care of the problem, due to meds not working was an abltion. So now two abltions later, my heart rate was too low, and now had to have a pacer placed. Two months after having the place place I was still having problems in fact felt worse after the pacer was placed so I went to Mayo for a 2nd option, that when I found out I had POTS, and they said one of the worse thigs you can do it you have POTS is to have a pacer. I beleive it as I have never felt good since it was placed. ( This is just my option, but please becarefull when thing about on, get a second option before jumping in, if I could go back I would had never had the first abliton.)

[nikigrl8883]

thanks for all your advice//no doctors have mentioned a pacer i was just asking who had them for pots and why and what determines people getting them ....thank you i feel well informed about this topic now...and i dont plan on getting one lol! that would be the end of the road for me only if i absoulutly had to have one

[sfrnklin]

Dr. Grubb told me that after my ablation there was a certain percentage (forgot the exact number) that I could go into heart block (complete, 1st degree, or 2nd degree) and would have to have a pacemaker. Luckily, after my ablation I am NSR to ST. A long time ago for NCS and POTS they used to use ablation to totally get rid of your SA node and you would have to have a pacemaker. I have a friend they did that too, but they don't do that certain procedure anymore. This is all I really know about pacemakers that is related to POTS.

sfrnklin

[taylortotmom]

I have a pacer becaue I have tachy/brady syndrome in addition to my dysautonomia (which isn't POTS). POTS folks generally are advised against ablation and pacers. In my case, the pacemaker has helped tremendously with my mornings- I don't get up feeling like I have been hit by a truck. But, as stated it helps with my brady not my tachy.

Carmen

[nikigrl8883]

somtimes at resting i get brady too like in the low 50s even 40s somtimes not daily though...i dont know why that happens im on a very low dose beta once a day in the morning....i think it actually happened before i was onthe beta too

[morgan617]

I had ablation in 2003, by a doctor that didn't understand ans stuff.

I got a pacer in 9/06 for tachy/brady or sick sinus syndrome.....they don't know if it's related to the ablation, but would not be surprised by that.

I was having 7-8 second pauses and dropping like a rock.....and then was dropping to sustained rates of 30. blech.

I have been better since my pacer. I have never heard of anyone needing that many leads, i sure wouldn't go to that cardio. The only time I know of that they mess with leads is if they fracture or something and in the 12 years I worked on a cardiac floor, I only saw that about 3 times.

I get mine checked by phone every 3 months and at the office every other 3 months, so 4 times a year, with 2 office visits and 2 phone calls. When my battery needs to be changed, in about 7-10 ten years, they will open my 3 inch scar, slip out the container and put in a new battery, then slip the container back in.

I don't ever have to have eps for mine. Yours sounds more like a defibrillator dawg tired, than a dual chamber pacer.

Mine has helped a lot with sudden syncope from pauses, but that's all it does. And all I expected it to do. But it was worth it to me. I also tolerate betas better, as they made my heart rate drops worse, so now I can take them without worrying about a rate going below 60, ever.

I DO regret my ablation profoundly, but not my pacer at all.....except i am sick enough at my age to need one!

[goldicedance]

Gayla...I am on my 3rd pacer....batteries worn out on two, and the third because I needed to get the pacer moved to my abdomen because of breast cancer radiation. They did not take out the leads. In fact, when they moved the pacer, they used what I call "extension cords" to extend the leads. Each pacer has been new technology. In fact, the third pacer was supposed to be a different brand and they could still use the old leads. Removing leads is a very difficult procedure--chance of fracturing the leads, tearing the heart muscle, etc.

Don't worry about the leads.

[Donna F]

Hi

I found out after having my pacer put in in Oct 06, that i had dys. I was having brd/tach/ I have had some bad and good with it, but if they use a modern pacer the doc can set it to where ur heart can go below a certain rate or above either. So mine is set between 60 and 120. Which is good i can remember my rates low as the 30's and went to er one night with hr of 175 and they thought i was on speed and left me this way for hrs til they got the drug test back. I have ques whether i should have tried meds first, but then on christmas eve went to hosp as i had felt the pacer kicking in every 5 min or so for 3 days straight, and had not done it but a few times before, that is when i found it was actually stopping and the pacer saved my life, and pressure was higher than ever, but feel that i need a med change , prob will try and wean me off florinef. Havin headaches, pressure up, etc. Hope it is helpful, all docs have diff opinions, but i feel that if ur rate is droppin too low u can feel it kick in and can at least know when to call for help where as if u r asleep u could end up dropping to a deadly level. so check with a electrophysiologist/cardiologist they spec. in pacers for dys.

Good luck

Donna