Quote Originally Posted by Jurdoc
yes. I was aware of the majority of the terms he used...he did mention LV with good reason though. perhaps the scotch is affecting me a bit tonight, I had a dram or two, but there was an article (due to the scotch, I cannot supply a link) where it was indicating that LV and RV are not uncommonly related I guess. in response to dave's post, I actually have a St. Jude Model V70 I believe it is. LOTS of juice! I believe a minimum 240J with turbocharge to 300. and when it thumps, it whops me on my ass. not pleasant. again, I'd rather not play around with fire, no pun intended. you know the interesting thing my doctor told me, is when symptomatic, people with my condition stand an 11% chance of surviving an episode without an AICD, but a 97% chance of surviving WITH it. sure convinced me!
In some ARVD patients, they find out the LV had some aneurysmal dilation, too. Sadly that's usually at autopsy, and it's unlikely you have that problem. Sometimes, too, the free wall of the LV has some fibrofatty development if you have the fibrofatty infiltrating ventricular cardiomyopathy.

Glad to know St. Jude's watching out for you. When 240 - 300 joules hit you in the chest, you pretty well feel like God's on guard, too, when he checks in through that device. So one of my very spiritual patients tells me. I know that's not pleasant but when you think about the alternative, it's not too bad. Like a nice little cattle prod in the chest to remind you to appreciate life.

Birdie's had five electrocardioversions for her a-fib over the last six or so years. 100j does the trick just fine on her or it did. She's slender and atria convert fairly easily anyway. The last time they zapped her, though, her now former doctor's partner manually turned the defibrillator to 200. He did this after she was under or she'd have squawked. They'd asked me and her dad to step out of the room already (or I would have taken a swing at the dude). The two nurses told me what he'd done. Bird had that feeling like a horse kicked her in the chest for two days after 200j. The unnecessary extra voltage was really aimed at me for some professional jealousy over a new heart hospital most of us have moved to. She'll be having her upcoming ablation at the heart hospital under the care of a colleague of mine who's not a vengeful assclown.

Best of luck to you, Jurdoc. That 97% survival likelihood with the defibrillator in place? It's the remaining 3% you don't want to possibly risk with cannabis. Better to be safe than a statistic, I like to say.
Dave Byrd Reviewed by Dave Byrd on . vaporizer and heart/cardiac issues Ok, so here goes. I have a heart condition, a fairly serious one, for which I have an implanted cardiac defibrillator. in the past, on two or three separate occasions, after smoking cannabis, I have suffered attack-like symptoms, including loss of consciousness (after a 3 foot bong session lasting an hour or so) and had arrythmia (irregular heartbeat) and basically symptoms of my condition. i have begrudgingly come to the conclusion that i cannot safely smoke cannabis. however, my suspicion is Rating: 5