Vaso-Vagal Discussion

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Re: Night time V-V

From: tim

Comments

47 year old male

email i sent to family out of province family below:

I was kind of hoping no one would find out about the pacemaker but that was a dream.

Bad news travels fast they say. I told the kids and **** myself. ***** is worried about hugghing me too hard and ****** wants to know if it is an energizer battery.

Anyway, when I spoke to Mum it made me think about my lifestyle and question whether this was really serious and a sign of really poor health, but having thought it through, I am sure this is just an unusual way to control one or two fainting spells I have each year. There is quite a bit of info on the internet about this and many threads from people who tell stories about their fainting. It is called vaso vagal syncopy or something like that. When I first went on the internet, I traded emails with a lady from California on the pacemaker topic and she siad it was just the ticket for her.

http://www.clinicalpsychologist.com/clinicalpsychologist/Vaso-Vagal1_frm.htm has a lot of info from people who get this but the cause and symptoms are all over the map.

My doctor first told me to get a pacemaker 5 years ago because my system is too sensitive to 3 or 4 triggers that makes your pulse slow down. That on top of my unusually slow heart rate of 48-50 beats a minute makes me susceptible to light headedness and fainting. I put it off for five years after finding out what caused the pulse to slow down. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop waking up at night feeling anxious and a little dehydrated. sometimes I would pace and it would go away but sometinmes I would not be able to stop it even if I laid down as many people sugggest.

So after five years of avoiding the knife, my doctor and I finally decided it needed to be done because every fainting spell at 4:00am was more than alarming for *****. There are intenet rumours that say some peolpe have died when their heart fails to restart. My doctor was worried that I would faint and hurt myself too.

The cardioligist met me again to review my 5 year old stress test and halter test he gave me and then had me in 10 days later for the surgery.

I spent all of 8 hours in the hospital Tuesday including 4 hours of prep. The other 3 people being done that day averaged 92 years old. I'm not kidding. They thought I was overflow from the daycare down the hall.

The drugs were very satisfying and they controlled the pain too. After they wore off, I used exttra strength Tylnol for a couple more days.

Anyway, my heart rate is now 60 and I feel great 5 days later except I am a little sore around the incision. I went back to work Thursday, did a light workout last night, walked up and down the sideline as flag person/line judge at ***** soccer game today and will start jogging/hockey next week.

I have to go to my doctor next week and a pacemaker clinic in mid November where they will check the zapper and anwere questions. I have to carry a card in case of emergency, I set off the airport security evary time and you can hear me tick if you listen very closely.

A couple of doctors wanted to ask me or explain to me how the battery and cable go in but I said unless necessary, you can leave that part out.

Depending on where we set the heartrate, the battery needs to be replaced every 5-15 years.

So now you know what I think


This web site is not a substitute for a thorough medical evaluation and diagnosis of your vaso-vagal type symptoms.  Medical treatment and diagnosis is the only acceptable initial response to these serious symptoms since they might present from any number of life threatening and treatable illnesses. It is for you and your physician to rule out more serious illnesses; Please don't use this online forum as an alternative to getting responsible medical attention and being under the care of a physician for the duration of any unknown, suspected or dangerous vaso-vagal syndrome symptoms.
Last changed: June 22, 2007