I have an icd for chf pulse is up and down constantly is this normal ?

i have had Chf for 5 years now and take 37.5 mg coreg twice daily along with 5 mg lisinipril and pacer is set at 60-100 hpm. laying down my heart rate is generally 60-95 but flexes by the second then goes up to 100-110 and higher even if i'm doing something as easy as washing dishes. i exercise daily on treadmill 1.5 miles and it goes up very little more. Anyone ?

it sounds like you have a pacemaker that is both a pacer and a defibulator these are used when heart damage has caused your heart rate to fluctuate from high to low intermittently. the fluctuation is usually caused by a diseased heart, be it from several heart attacks, continuos chf, or many other causes too numerous to count, it all says the same thing--you have a diseased heart and to maintain an adequate oxygen level for the rest of your body, the heart has to beat a certain number of times or be slowed down to a range that gives the rest of the body time to retrieve the oxygen. in either case you need the pacemaker to keep it between 2 rates(not too high or not too low) to accomplish this.

For some people their pulse rate varies widely. A pace maker will make sure your pulse rate is at the minimum or higher. They generally don't slow the heart down but they can if set to do so. I would discuss this with your Dr as I am not him/her... But I don't forsee and issue. Do you get short of breath easily, do you have chest pain with any exersion? If the answer is yes tell your Dr right away... If you don't I think making a general appointment just to let him/her know would be fine... Again, I am not your dr....

I have to be honest, I don't have many, many years of nursing experience, but I don't think I've met a pacemaker ever designed to slow down a heart. I could be wrong, though. Pacers are usually designed to speed up a heart that is either too slow or irregular. In your case, you also have a defibrillator which will sense if your heart is in a critically dangerous rhythm and shock it back to a normal rhythm. Patients I have cared for describe it like being kicked in the chest by a horse.
If your heart rate is speeding up to a high level and then slowing down, you may have a condition known as "Tachy-Brady Syndrome" - literally, the heart rapidly switches from beating fast (tachycardia) to beating too slow (bradycardia). Your pacemaker is masking the brady side of your problem, because when you heart slows, it is pacing.
Treatment for this is sometimes an additional medication to slow down the heart to the point where the pacemaker pretty much runs all the time. A friend of mine had tacky-brady, and this is how he is managed. Your tachy spells don't seem to be dangerously fast (100-110 is high, but not critical) so it may be why your doctor hasn't changed your meds (yet). Discuss with your cardiologist next time they check your pacemaker.