Being Zapped

[maryflynn]

What up, I am 17 year old guy from Wisconsin. I had an ICD/Pacermaker implanted in me when I was 14. The Defib has never gone off and the pacer only pace's when my heart needs it to. My question: My doctor told me that if my Defib were to go off, I would be unconscious at the time ( unless it was an accidental shock). But it seems that in all these cases of people getting shocked, they are awake and conscious. Did I understand the doctor wrong? My other question: I just had a myectomy about 4 weeks ago. Does this reduce my risk of the defib going off (sudden death)? My pressure gradient was at 112 before the operation at rest, and after it was 25 at rest, but the guy said that would probably go down because of all the swelling of the heart after being sliced. please send some answers my way---peace

[cheerchicken05]

Hey-- glad to see someone else my age on here. im 17 and got an ICD implant last june. From what i've heard, you're right, the shock usually comes when you're conscious of it.

[maryflynn]

hey nice to meet you. Do you have instant messanger or something? I'd like to chat some time.

[bryan]

I received my first and so far only shock 8 years ago. At that time I was unconscious.

[Lisa Salberg]

The overwhelming majority of ICD's fire when the person has already 'fainted' and therefore you do not feel anything. Some people do have the device fire when they are awake but it is actually far more rare.

Best wishes to you post myectomy!
Lisa

[maryflynn]

Thank you thank you thank you

It would suck to get a shock when you are awake so im glad that if it happens I will be out anyways. THanks for the reassurance..

[Reenie]

You can check out www.zaplife.org to find out more people's experiences with being zapped. Most of those people don't have HCM, but they do have defibrillators for whatever reason.

Reenie

[cheerchicken05]

Hey again-- yeah i have AOL instant messager. My screen name is SuperNelly87... feel free to IM me whenever, im on quite a bit

[baw578]

From what I understand, there are 3 stages. First it will try to pace you out, next it will give you a small shock and finally it will give you a big shock. I understand that you will be unconcious b/c you will not have enough oxygen in your blood. But I beilieve each stage had to be a certain BPM and so many v-techs.

[Reenie]

Not all ICD's are also pacers, so the ones that aren't can't try to pace you out of an arrhythmia before shocking you. I do think that more people have combo devices, though.

Reenie

[Julie E]

ICD shock

Well I have experienced 6 shocks in my 5 1/2 years of having the ICD and I have been AWAKE for each and every one of them.

I guess my body does not want to give in . My EP told me during my EP study 5 1/2 years ago I hung on for a long time (once they put me in A-fib) before I finally passed out so that they could shock me back into a normal rhythm. He said I was talking to them(none of which I remember) and finally told them I was getting dizzy and passed out. Said it took like 65 seconds compared to the man before me..only took him 10 seconds. I guess as we know we are all different!

All I can say is you feel it but it is over very quickly and I have no pain afterwards.

Julie in Cincy.