A first for me... Not sure what it's gonna mean

Some of you know I have cardiomyopathy. I was diagnosed seven years ago this October. It's been mild to moderate and until this summer other than being fatigued a lot and having other odd symptoms, I've been OK. Not great, but OK. I've not been "bad" enough to qualify for better treatments.

Well, I went to the cardiologist today and I'm now in active congestive heart failure. I'm on new meds and I have another echo scheduled for Thursday. Depending on what the echo reveals, I may be eligible from and greatly benefit from a synchronizing pacemaker, as I have an extremely elongated QRS interval (otherwise known as LBBB or left bundle branch block). My EF has been as low as 38% and the qualifying number is anything below 35%. The symptoms I've been having suggest it's probably pretty low. Among other things, I nearly passed out on a walk the other day.

Not sure what this means for me and ham radio... I'm guessing nothing over 10 watts. No idea. Life just got interesting.

Sorry to hear that.
I wish you the best.

That sucks to hear Kelli :(

I wasn't aware of your medical condition Kell, and I'm sorry to hear about it.

My limited understanding is that most pacemakers these days should not be affected by amateur level RF. If one is, it is most likely malfunctioning. But I am not a medical practioner or anything close to it, so don't go by my opinion. As your doctor if and when it comes to that point in time.

That aside, if you have good quality coax feeding the antenna, and the antenna is far enough away, I suspect transmitting would be unlikely to have a direct impact, as the field strength near you won't be that relatively high. Again, check with your doctor and with the manufacturer. But hell, you're a broadcast engineer (non practicing), so you already know this.

Also check into a remote-controlled rig. The TS-480S with a remote head comes to mind, as does a Ten-Tec Omni VII that can be completely controlled via it's Ethernet port, or so they tell me...

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Originally Posted by W5IEI

Sorry to hear that.
I wish you the best.

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Originally Posted by KC2UGV

That sucks to hear Kelli :(

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Thanks guys. It's not all bad news. I've actually been hoping for better treatment anyway. This could make things a LOT better for me in the long-run, the only disadvantage being that I won't be able to be near a high RF field. When I was first diagnosed they put me on meds that made me feel 10 times worse than I already did (Coreg) and then told me I wasn't "bad enough" to qualify even for temporary disability until my body adjusted to the meds. I could hardly function, was extremely fatigued and dizzy all the time and as a result I voluntarily took a leave from work for almost two years until I felt better. I fixed computers and my other half went to work during that time. I felt better after those two years but not at all like I did before the time that led up to the diagnosis. I've never felt the same and have been told even though I am very fatigued and have memory problems and such, I should just suck it up and live with it. Thank you insurance companies, because it's their restrictions that have disqualified me from better treatment options... Not trying to turn the thread political, but it's true.

So to me, this is actually good news. I may actually get my energy and memory back after seven years of absence.

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Originally Posted by W3WN

I wasn't aware of your medical condition Kell, and I'm sorry to hear about it.

My limited understanding is that most pacemakers these days should not be affected by amateur level RF. If one is, it is most likely malfunctioning. But I am not a medical practioner or anything close to it, so don't go by my opinion. As your doctor if and when it comes to that point in time.

That aside, if you have good quality coax feeding the antenna, and the antenna is far enough away, I suspect transmitting would be unlikely to have a direct impact, as the field strength near you won't be that relatively high. Again, check with your doctor and with the manufacturer. But hell, you're a broadcast engineer (non practicing), so you already know this.

Also check into a remote-controlled rig. The TS-480S with a remote head comes to mind, as does a Ten-Tec Omni VII that can be completely controlled via it's Ethernet port, or so they tell me...

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Thank you. All very good thoughts and information. I never thought about a remote control rig before. It would be worth doing, for sure. Right now my setup is an RF nightmare. I'd need some help putting a better antenna together for sure. At this point I'm not up to climbing a ladder or being anywhere high up where falling would be a bad thing.


As for the engineering, yes that part of my life will most definitely be over. I've been asked to do some contract stuff on the side here and there and that would be a no-no.

The silly thing about all this is you'd never know by looking at me that I've got this effed up heart. I try to stay active and fit and I'm not fat. I'm always by far the youngest one in the cardiologist office.

Sorry to hear that Kelli, you will be in my positive thought forms. I have no real clue, but I would avoid being around UHF, or even UHF harmonics. My grandmother went through this, and I was her medical advocate. I was concerned about her living with us being around rf. Her md consulted with the pacemaker manufacturer. They indicated (without warrant of course) to avoid uhf rf. That was just her md, this may not work for you. This is the only time I was ever involved with anything this close. I have absolutely no real knowledge on this. I only had an al811 amplifier which I hardly used, so it was not an issue. I did not xmit my 2meter fm mobile rig when she was in the car.

All the best
T

ps, you cannot escape the genetic material you inherited.

What are you doing as far as an exercise and diet regimen is concerned?

I recently changed mine. No sugar, HFCS and limited fats. Lots of chicken, turkey, fish and fruits/vegetables. Simple foods - as simple as I can readily buy. Am working out like a fiend 2-3 times per week. This will increase to 4-6 times once I'm past the conditioning phase.

Lost 5 lbs at the most but my clothes are hanging off me now (vastly increased muscle density) and I have no more cardiovascular issues that I'm aware of. Doc said my lungs and overall pulmonary condition are 'excellent'.

I really don't care if I lose weight. I want to lose the remaining body fat I have, getting down to the 9-11% area. I could easily carry 270lbs on my frame but don't want that in the form of a high percentage BMI.

You might run the notion of a cardio-conditioning regimen by the doc and get some feedback.

Sorry to read about your condition Kelly.
A friend of me got his pacemaker/shocker, he can use his radio normally with 100 watts, ( all he has in power).
The latest pacemakers are quite well H.F. hard, no problems with RF on any frequency.

Ask your physician always about your make/model if you get one.

Get the ARRL on the horn and ask them what research they may have on the topic. They may well have some information about brands that are suitable (or more importantly, unsuitable) for use by amateurs. Email Ed Hare (W1RFI@arrl.org) and ask him to help you find out what is open to you. Ed is good people.