feeling out and alone

hey
im a 20 year old student who starts medical school next month. I had my pacemaker fitted two weeks ago (12 aug 2011). it was fitted below my arm, i do not know anyone else who has one here and i have a grandmother who has a pacemaker but other than that i have no idea what to expect.
for the past four years i had been experiencing numerous fainting episodes with chest pain up to four or five times a week after having an implantable heart monitor device for 2 months the doctors found ventricular tachycardia, however today there are doctors who will argue it was sinus tachycardia. the conclusion was made to implant a pacemaker to improve my quality of life.
its been 18 days and im still very sore. i was in complete agony for the first 5 days or so and then it eased off. however after lifting my friends son (on the opposite side to my pacemaker) i found to be very tender and sore around my heart area, which is not where my pacemaker is implanted. i have no idea if i may have done any damage to the position of the leads or weather it is just tender as the operation was so soon.
with no idea what to expect or no one to compare it to i dont know whats to come in the next few days and weeks...

10 Comments

pain

by dorieg - 2011-08-30 08:08:20

Hi ncrawford...

If it's as sore as you say, I think you should contact your cardiologist to have it checked out. They can make sure the leads are Ok and your settings are right. You want to make sure you didn't disturb the leads to your heart. Better safe than sorry.

When you say it's below your arm do you mean on the left side of chest?

If he says all is OK you'll feel better with time. You may need tweaking until you get it where you want but look at the brightside ....you won't be fainting.

Congrats on Med School.....that's a tremendous acheivement. You should be proud!

VT

by ekt32 - 2011-08-30 10:08:14

I also have VT. It's not a fun condition but you do what you gotta do. A friend of mine hit my ICD area with a car door about 2 weeks after I had it implanted and it was fine. But I agree with dorieg. Call your doctor about the pain and your concerns. You never know what it could be.

Congrats on med school!
Emma

New Pacemaker's are puzzling...

by Lisarose - 2011-08-30 10:08:50

Hi ncrawford,
Also a very bigcongrats on your new carreer path! I agree with Dorieg, go to your specialist and have things checked, likely nothing, but the procedure you went through is significant thus so are the consequences if something is amiss. You didn't mention if you have a history of health issues, but my point is, (kindly), get used to advocating for yourself if you have a concern. Regarding the position of your pacer, well, I guess I would just wonder if there are added things to watch out for due to its placement? Again, find out. Welcome to this group, I am fairly new myself having just recieved my pacemaker two months ago, but even in two months, things are better. (I can relate to the initial agony, kind of unexpected eh?). Take care, take it easy, get strong...
Keep in touch...
Lisarose :)

Pain

by ElectricFrank - 2011-08-31 01:08:43

Something you will learn as a medical type is that once a patient is under anesthesia the OR team considers them a slab of beef on the table. You can be placed in all sorts of unusual positions leaving soreness that has nothing to do directly with the surgery.

I chose to have my implant done with only a local pain killer around the site and no sedatives. I was totally awake during the entire procedure. What is interesting is that about half way through someone in the OR team decided my sternum would be a good place to rest an elbow. It was a very heavy pressure and would have caused me to have a strange painful area. If I had been out I would never have known the source. As it was I let the person know that it wasn't a good idea. There were other things like positioning my head in a way that put pressure on my 80 yr old neck. If I hadn't corrected this I would have had a severe head ache for several days.

As it was I very little pain and never needed any meds for it.

So, try looking at it this way and see if the sore area makes any sense.

good luck with medical school,

frank

PM working

by Parrothead57 - 2011-08-31 02:08:16

Yes, I feel my PM working or what I have always assumed was my PM at work. I was told I'm being paced 18% of the time and that number would correspond with how often I feel the sensation. (Taking into account pacing that occurs while I'm asleep) The sensation is also as you describe "a tapping feeling".

I mentioned this to my clinician at my 3 month check and she said it was common.

The soreness around my incision site lasted about a month but it was very mild. There is still a slight bit of tenderness and I'm 6 months post op.

Hope things get better for you soon.
PH

PM tenderness

by F0xieR0xie - 2011-08-31 02:08:57

Congratulations on med school! I too had my PM fitted at a young age, 17 to be exact. I was quite wary about my PM site being tender for a while after it is fitted, I think to some extent you always will be. After a while you'll almost forget it's there and becomes part of life. It sounds like you are experiencing more pain than most but like someone else said, everyones threshold is different. You may be more tender because of where your PM is situated. (I've never heard of that before!) be on the safe side just in case and bring it up at your post op appointment.
Good luck to you :)

I agree with everybody above

by janetinak - 2011-08-31 04:08:08

sounds like you are more sore than the average. 'Course we are all different in pain response. But I am concerned about the amount of weight you lifted when you lifted the child. I had my 3rd PM put in 8/23 & have a lifting limit of 10 lbs for 3 wks. So you may be lifting too much also. Best to check.

Good luck in Med School. Be nice to have a MD ion here with a PM.

Janet

Yep, I can definitely feel my pacer!!

by Lisarose - 2011-08-31 04:08:40

I pace at about 25%, mine is set for below 60bpm as well as for a sudden drop of 25 beats, while I am only two months past my pacemaker insert, I am pretty sure I feel it pacing too, but with mine, I get momentary sharp pains, they then go away, it was mentioned on this site that this could be due to some stray electricity that is hitting a nerve, I am not too concerned and will ask my specialist when I see him, take care all...
Lisarose

oh and another thing...

by ncrawford - 2011-08-31 12:08:26

does anybody feel their pacemaker working?
i cant sleep at night and i can feel like a tapping feeling coming from my heart area which i had never experienced before...? my pacemaker is only one which reacts apparently when my heart goes below 40bpm. but ever since i still feel my heart very jumpy and skippy... this will not bother me however if i still do not collapse.

thanks :)

by ncrawford - 2011-08-31 12:08:33

Thank you all for your comments, its nice to hear something from people in the same boat as you!
being more specific to location of my pacemaker it is positioned in my armpit to the left hand side of my heart as i am young my cardiologist wanted minimal scaring in an area which would not be seen as well.
as regards to my history, i guess there needed to be one in the family with heart problems so young. i have a grandmother with hypertrophic cardiomyopothy and atrial fibrilliation and another grandmother with angina and my father had a heart attack at a young age.
im hoping to have a post op appointment with my doc soon and will be able to outline some of the problems iv been experiencing. however, as my doctor is chinese although he is incredibly smart sometimes trying to understand each other gets lost in translation!
thank you everyone for your help! it means a lot
nicola

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My pacemaker is intact and working great.