Pacemaker Club: ?AT flutter and a twitch.

?AT flutter and a twitch.

by pancres
2014-05-18 01:05:38
ICDs
1551 views
2 comments

Have had ICD St Jude in since 2011. Ablation six months ago. Felt great eventually.I am now getting Twitchin of my chest where device is.Almost like an explosion in my chest!!!. Has happened a couple of times at first I thought device had gone off. Has anyone else had this experience. I do have Honiton moniter by my bed . I presume nothing has shown up.
How does one know if battery is needing attention?
Hope to get a reply. Pancres.

2 Comments

Get checked

by Lpmad@att.net - 2014-05-25 05:05:07

My husband experienced this and the just removed his and put another unit in. His av node had been abated so he was 100 percent dependent. I would tell my ep doctor

Vibrating or muscle twitching?

by AndyJames - 2014-05-29 08:05:27

St. Jude ICDs have a patient notifier in the event that the battery is getting low or a lead is malfunctioning. The ICD vibrates just like a cell phone set to vibrate. If that's what you're feeling then you should be seen asap, especially considering that it's not likely the battery after only 3 years. If this is the case though your home monitor should have notified your clinic.

I also hear a lot of complaints of pain and muscle spasms around the ICD when patients had recently lost weight. Losing the fat which acts like a cushion around the device causes it to bump up against nerves and muscles causing shooting nerve pain and muscle spasms. Usually this goes away if the patient maintains a steady weight. In rare cases if the pain persists the doc will have to do a pocket revision and move the device to a different area, but that is usually a last resort for when it really hurts the patient's quality of life.

You should probably talk to your clinic just to make sure that they haven't received any alerts from your home monitor and ask them about the twitching.