First I want to apologize as I am new to this board here. Last week I had a heart attack (I am 29 years old) and I was diagnosed with Low QT syndrome where my hearts electrical system misfires going into these weird arrhythmia resulting in cardiac arrest. Other than that my heart is perfectly fine and healthy.

My question to yall is, have anyone of y’all have pacemaker/icd surgery? How long does it take after the procedure to get back into a normal running and exercise routine. Obviously my doctors option matter but just wanted some input.

Thanks in advance!

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Posted by Huey Lewis

Member since Oct 2013

4653 posts

Posted on 8/11/19 at 10:59 am to couyon2

No personal experience with a pacemaker, but I used to know a guy that did Brazilian jiu jitsu with one. He had already had it for a number of years and wore these exercise shirt/rash guards that were designed specifically for people with pacemakers.

Anyway he told me his biggest issue was just being nervous after the implant surgery. Took him a couple months before he could relax about it enough to start upping his exercise and activity and said he was always worrying he would damage the pacemaker or the leads or displace it somehow. As time went by he got more and more comfortable with it and eventually it wasn't such a big source of worry anymore.

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Posted by couyon2

Member since May 2019

74 posts

Posted on 8/12/19 at 4:48 pm to Huey Lewis

Thanks for the info! I think my doctor wants to put me on a treadmill in the next couple of weeks to check the pacemaker and to get me comfortable with being active again.

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Posted by MikeTh3Tiger

Mandeville, La

Member since May 2013

289 posts

Posted on 8/12/19 at 7:17 pm to couyon2

1st, congrats on not dying. Cardiac Arrest is no joke. Did you need to be defibrillated when it happened?

As for activity level I believe your Dr. will give you some guidelines which probably involve a max heart rate so while you'll still be permitted to run you'll need to monitor your rate continuously to stay below the threshold. Source: hear say...

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Posted by couyon2

Member since May 2019

74 posts

Posted on 8/13/19 at 7:42 am to MikeTh3Tiger

I have my first doctors appointment today, I am assuming he will still make me rest up a couple of more weeks until my incision fully heals. I believe he has my upper rate set to 200 which would be near impossible to get. I do have the ICD which is also a pacemaker/defibrillator as a back up.

My issue is I would go into cardiac arrest when resting, not exercising.

I actually went into cardiac arrest twice... once while working from home and once the next day in the hospital immediately after a CT scan. Both times I came to by myself but the second time I woke up I had pads on me and they were ready to shock me.

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