Blanchje

I'm 58 and a couple years ago was diagnosed with a left bundle branch block. Follow-ups with my cardiologist showed a decrease in my EF indicating early stage heart failure. I'm not overweight, I ride and exercise regularly, I'm a very healthy eater so it's been a bit of a head scratcher. I had a cath and my arteries are clean as can be so all the diagnosis have been listed as idiopathic which is medical for we have no idea. Initial treatment starting about 6 months ago, was Lisinopril and an increasing dose of Coreg. From day one on the meds I felt like absolute crap. In talking to my cardiologist he has felt in my situation a CRT pacemaker was the ticket. Problem was I fell into the zone for coverage of not sick enough. My doc didn't give up and we've been building a case and yesterday I got the call I was approved and am scheduled for implant 5/11. It's weird to be excited about having to get a pacemaker but I am. The idea of spending the next 20-30 years on these drug dosages is not appealing. I'm curious, have any other members gone the CRT route and how have the results been?

JohnDThompson 

Hey, it's titanium -- it's got to be good!



Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) Devices for Heart Failure

leob1

Stop exercising, eat crap, gain weight, etc. etc. so you can 'sick enough' to get fixed up. Who is running this asylum?
That sounds like an intersection in my town, it's very busy, but a traffic light can't be put in because there haven't been enough acc(sorry) crashes yet.

Hope everything goes well.

Enjoy the ride!

JanMM

You'll need to remove 3 ounces of excess crap from your bike to make up for the stated wt of the device.

No direct experience here but do know that pacemakers are generally implanted as a routine outpatient surgery/electrophysiology procedure.
Guessing you won't miss much riding. (But pay attention to medical advice about that.)
Good luck!

Blanchje

I'm thinking a new bike is in order

TCR Rider

I had an ICD/Pacemaker implanted about 2 1/2 years ago to treat an arrhythmia, ventricular tachycardia. I absolutely hated the beta blockers that I was prescribed and actually stopped taking them. I had an ablation but it wasn't entirely successful so the ICD was implanted the next day.
The procedure itself was not terrible and I was put under twilight sedation so I was aware of what was going on for the most part. IIRC the procedure took about two hours and I was in the hospital for two days. The first night in the Cardiac ICU then to a regular room the following day. As far as recovery I was up and walking immediately and riding on the trainer after not much more than a week. The main concern was making sure the leads from the device adhere to the heart so I had to be careful lifting anything heavy or overhead with the left arm for about six weeks. After that things were pretty much back to normal except that it looks like I have an i-phone sitting under the skin just above my left pec.
Ultimately the ICD delivered therapy, fired, a few times which was not pleasant but it corrected the arrhythmia. My cardiologist suggested that since I did not want to go back on Beta Blockers I could consider a second ablation. It turns out that it is not that unusual that it takes more than one ablation to correct an arrhythmia. I was fortunate to have one of the top Electro-Physiologists in the country perform the procedure. This time, it was done just over a year ago, it was successful and I haven't had an event or issue since then. You could almost say that I no longer need the ICD but it's in there now and my cardiologist says it's like riding with my personal EMT and that makes my wife happy.
BTW I had trouble with the beta blockers but I am on 10mg of Lisinopril which is an Ace Inhibitor. I have no side effects with that. Some develop a dry cough but that has not been my experience.
It sounds as if your condition is different than mine but I would be confident that your quality of life will improve once you get off the BB's. For what it's worth I'm 63 and rode over 9000 miles last year with a good amount of intensity.

Blanchje

Thank you TCR. That is encouraging. I plan to make sure it heals and then get out and see what its like to have my heart working correctly. Im sure it had been affecting me for a while. My doc has been very supportive. Not much lifting and no golf but I should be able to do some riding fairly quickly.

TCR Rider

I remembered this site after I posted last night. I got a lot of questions answered here when I first had my ICD implanted. You might want to check it out.
Pacemaker Club - Support & Information For Pacemaker & Defibrillator Patients

Blanchje

Thanks. Very informative.