Fatigue from pacemaker

[Tricia4924]

My mother is 89 years old and had a new pacemaker put in 9 months ago.  Her old pacemaker kept her heartbeat at a constant 70 beats; the new one varies from a low of 60 up to a maximum of 120 (it has not gone above 92).  Her heartbeat is averaging about 80-82 beats during the day.  She is wheelchair bound, quite sedentary, has debetes and has middle stage dementia.  She has begun sleeping a lot during the day even after a good night's sleep.  Could the pacemaker be making her heart beat too fast and causing the fatigue?

[itdood]

My first thoughts are that it's the progression of dementia.  I thought sleeping a lot is one of the stages?  My grandmother went through it and at some point she just slept a lot.  It wasn't a restful sleep, it was like she was half-in half-out of sleep as it seemed she was acting out her dreams.

My thoughts on the pacing and fatigue is that the fatigue associated with needing to be paced isn't due to the pacemaker per se.  The fatigue is related to a slower heart rate < 60.  But I always thought of it as tiring more easily from physical activity, not sleep related.  I could be wrong.

[cindy707]

To me if she is a diabetic it could definately be a blood sugar issue with the fatigue....if someones heart rate goes up and your moms is well within normal limits they get a push of adrenaline thru their body and actually become a little more hyper or active....she would have to be in total a fib to me to have the issues of fatigue after an episode because a fib can really zap you out....sounds like the pacemaker is doing its job to me but you really have to take into consideration that your mom is almost 90 and i believe that when any of us have been on this earth for that long that mother time catches up with all of us and our bodies just become tired...makes sense but think about the blood sugar levels....