My fil was just diagnosed with a 2:1 heart block. They’re installing a pacemaker. It appears to be a 3rd degree block. Can someone explain what this means? Everything online is geared to medical professionals and extremely hard to decipher.
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Imagine the atria (the two chambers at the top of the heart) and the ventricles (the two chambers at the bottom of the heart) as a relationship between wife and husband.
A normal sinus rhythm is where the husband (ventricles) comes home from work predictably to the wife (atria) at the same time every day at 5pm. Steady, reliable and predictable relationship!
A first degree heart block is where the husband starts coming home at 8pm instead of 5pm, he’s late but consistently late at the same time every day. The relationship is doing okay, the couple adjust to the new schedule.
A second degree type I block is where the husband starts staying out at 9pm, then 11pm, 12am and then one night doesn’t come home at all. He feels terrible so comes home right at 5pm the next day but the cycle of going out late continues over and over again. The relationship is rocky but stable.
A second degree type II block is where the husband randomly picks a day where he won’t come home at all. All the other days he’s home right at 5pm. But he might not come home on a Sunday one week, a Thursday the next week, a Tuesday the week after, etc. The relationship is heading downhill, there’s no consistency!
A third degree heart block is where the husband and wife are each doing their own thing, they might run into each other at home just by happenstance but it’s not planned. Divorce is imminent and the couple are staying in the same house while waiting for negotiations to be worked out.
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