What does a pacemaker feel like?

You really don’t feel anything. You may have some mild heart palpitations, but most people don’t feel anything abnormal.

I have had a pacemaker for seven years. It is implanted in the cavity between my shoulder and my ribcage and it feels like a little hard thing stuck in my chest.

I do not have a defibrillator so my device kicks in only when my heartbeat slows. It is set to shock the heart if I fall below 60 beats per minute. I pace about 80% in my ventricle and 15% in my atrium.
Sometimes I feel pulsations throughout my extremities occasionally and I think this is the pacemaker kicking in but you get used to it.

Frequently my heart rate is way above 60 and you can assume I am not pacing at all. Tonight at the gym I must have gotten over 100 beats per minute and obviously my pacemaker was just sitting and waiting for something to happen.

Just a little information. The battery on my device was rated for five years and I just passed seven at the beginning of April. I have it checked every six months and I have about a year to go. They don’t replace the battery, they give you a whole new device. Probably one night in the hospital and then send you home with some painkillers and it is back to work in two or three days.

My own cardiologist tells me that his mother is 91, still gets on the subway in Philadelphia to go places and is on her THIRD device. Still going strong.

SRM

My mom had one put in last Sat. ½ hr prep, ½ hr surgery, and she was out that afternoon. They gave her Advil and told her not to use her left arm/hand for 3 weeks. I wondered about the Advil, but she said she wasn’t using it.

My brother got one, and said he notices it when it corrects the rhythm. Otherwise, not at all.

GQ

@smorgan I knew nothing really about pacemakers, and found your answer interesting. Especially, that at below 60bpm it triggers. I’ve been known to go down to 46 bpm at night. I feel like I can get enough oxygen when I am like that