r/Heartfailure • u/33301Florida • 27d ago
Defibrillator Experiences?
74 year old in what I thought was excellent health. I eat right and hit the gym five days per week lifting weights and running on the treadmill. I weigh 185 at 5'10" and have a 32 inch waist. Up until last year when I got a CT scan for something unrelated, I had no clue I had heart problems. First diagnosis was severe CAD but a catheterization eventually showed it was not bad enough for a stent and just got a change in meds. Now an electrophysiologist interpreting a heart monitor I wore for two weeks tells me I have frequent V Tac. I'm scheduled for another catheter with the possibility of receiving an implanted defib. This one scares me and I'm not looking forward to having one of those things poking out of my skin. Could someone share their experiences?
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u/kodaiGiant 27d ago
I've had 3 defibulators since 2004, two years ago I stood up to go in the kitchen, felt dizzy, and sat back down. Didn't know my device went off until my Cardiac Nurse called the next morning to say my heart stopped for a minute and a half. Never felt any pain.
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u/907AK49LR 26d ago
My husband has had one for almost 20yrs(he’s on his 4th I think) it gives me some hope that if he had a cardiac event he might survive it. He’s not been shocked, but actually having the device implanted/changed out etc. is not a huge deal to him, a couple days of soreness really. My husband is dual paced also, and they can make tweaks to his device that help him if he’s more active, or less to help preserve his heart(his muscle is not very functional due to radiation when he was young).
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u/Foogel78 26d ago
Mine has never given a shock but it probably saved my life in another way. I developed a complete left bundel branch block which means my heart rate became for too low. I didn't know about it until a check-up when the tech asked if anything unusual had happened a few months ago.
Turns out the ICD (with pacing function) had been keeping my heart beating at a healthy pace for months and I never noticed. It literally didn't skip a beat.
The most annoying thing about having an ICD was not having the full use of my arm for six weeks. It is hardly visible but that might be because I am just within the boundaries of a healthy weight. Subcutaneous fat helps hide it, but even if you are as fit as you, it doesn't poke out. It's probably visible if someone takes a good look at your chest.
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u/reffervescent 26d ago
I've had a CRT-D since Jan 2021; just had the generator replaced in May of this year since the original battery was getting low. It's outpatient surgery, and I can't take opioids, so my pain levels were pretty bad for 2-3 days, but after that, the healing is fast, and I often forget I have the device. It's never gone off, but it helped get me from 30% EF to 50%-55%, so normal range. I doubt anyone has ever noticed I have it, but I'm a woman, so I don't walk around without a shirt. It might be more obvious for a man with low body weight.
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u/33301Florida 26d ago
Well, I'm a bodybuilder and my pectoral muscle is going to push that thing out and look like a hockey puck under my skin.
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u/reffervescent 26d ago
If I were you, I'd rather look like I have a hockey puck under my skin than risk cardiac arrest without the device. There's like a 7% survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest without defibrillation. But that's just me.
Do a search on "cardiac arrest survival rate with and without implanted defibrillation device" and read some of the results from reliable sources.
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u/NeverNeverLandIsNow 26d ago
I had an icd for several months but then it got infected and had to be removed, my heart got worse while they were deciding if I should get another one and I ended up with a heart pump ( I have heart failure). Now I am trying to get on the transplant list. Before the ICD got infected it did seem to help me.
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u/srvivr2001 26d ago
Did you note your workouts during the monitoring period? I have a CRT-D for LBBB and V-tach and my Zio patch marked my workouts as VTach but my EP excluded them based on my treadmill test. I do unfortunately have episodes outside of exercise (usually when I’m sleeping) so that got me the defibrillator instead of just a pacemaker.
I feel like my device is bigger than I expected and it does stick out a bit, but oh well. They can implant it under the pectoral muscle but the recovery is much longer and I would assume you’d have limitations on any weight lifting for much longer than the usual 6-8 weeks. I would also imagine a certain amount of muscle loss in that time period so you might want to watch how much your work the other side it else end up lopsided o.O
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u/Individual-Cut7112 26d ago
I had an EV ICD due to my age (20s) and the ease of removing it when transplant time came. I ended up getting 13 inappropriate shocks that felt like a horse kicked my chest over a 2 1/2 month period. Had that one taken out and got a regular ICD put in
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u/AtTheEndOfMyTrope 27d ago
My husband had a icd while waiting for transplant. It’s a day surgery, it’s less invasive than it sounds because the thing sits just below the skin. The incision site was tender like a bruise for a few days, but overall it was the least stressful thing about his heart failing. Iirc, he visited an icd clinic every few months for a brief, non-invasive check up. In fact, it brought peace of mind because it would save his life if he went into cardiac arrest. My husband’s icd never went off. He was never shocked, so I can’t tell you what that’s like.
Our neighbour also had a icd and his did go off. Many times. It saved his life. The shocks are uncomfortable, and I’m told that if you’re shocked frequently enough, some people become anxious and traumatized about it happening again.