It seems amazing that it's been a whole year since I was last in the Cardio-respiratory department at our local hospital, but this afternoon I was back for my annual check-up.
Last February, they re-calibrated my unit to 60 bpm, my normal resting heart rate is 72bpm, so even allowing for a reduction in rate while I am sleeping, my heart has to slow below 60 beats per minute before my pacemaker works.
I was interested to find out how frequently the unit was working as that has a direct impact on the length of time before the battery will need replacing.
Today's reading shows that 53% of the time the electrical impulses in my heart works correctly, without any need for pacing. That figure surprised me as I expected it to be higher. The remainder of the time the pacemaker is split between working in the upper chamber and lower chamber quite evenly.
On this level of work the battery life is showing as 10-15 years, so I have plenty of time before they'll be booking me in for a replacement.
One question that has been running through my mind recently is what happens when the condition gets to the point where there are no electrical impulses being sent by my body, the condition is degenerative so at some point the electrical impulses will stop. I have AV block Type 2, when it becomes a total block, as in no impulses, it will be Type 3.
I wasn't sure whether a pacemaker can work 100% of the time without any problem, so I discussed this with the technician while she was doing the readings. Well, the short answer is yes. They already have about 15 patients whose pacemakers work 100% of the time, and this isn't an issue. So, another question answered and something else I don't need to worry about anymore.
One other bit of positive information from the check up was that all my readings are in the low range, which is good. So, everything seems to be working well and I am now free to get on with the next year before visiting them again.
