How many people really pull out the leads?

Hello all. I have a question about pulling the leads out. How many people has this happened to? I'm just wondering because I had my ICD surgery on the 23rd of January and I'm wondering if the leads really are pretty much healed in there. I know it is a six week waiting time but I'm worried. In fact it seems I will worry til the six weeks pass by. Please let me know any information. Thanks.

Let me add this about myself. before the holidays I started to feel just sick, like I was coughing and feel generally like crap. I thought it was my asthma kicking up, but unfortunately they stopped selling my OTC pump Primatine mist, so I just thought it was half that and half the fear I had of not having that pump as I have no health coverage. but I started to really get sick I just could barely get out of bed and up the stairs and if I did I had to take a million rest breaks. Huffing and puffing like crazy. well on the 11th of Jan, 2012 I looked down and my feet were sort of swollen but I just could not believe it. I'm really slim and I had no ankle bones and my feet looked like hamster feet, lol. In fact I had those big legs I so wanted my whole life, lol. I was like WOW my legs are HUGE lol. Really I did, but I figured I better get up and get myself together for surely I'm gonna have to call 911, so from 12 noon on that Thursday till midnight that Friday I tried to prepare. Putting some clothes in a bag, packing my laptop, like I was going on a trip cause I knew if I went to the hospital I was stay and I live alone so I had to prepare. I took a shower before bed, which I had to put a plastic lawn chair in to keep off my feet cause I was coughing like crazy and couldn't really stand up long. The water felt so good. I did notice that my legs looked kinda freakish by now, but I just thought that maybe I had a fever too. Well I went to sleep and woke up at 4 am. My legs were so big now that I was walking like I had shackles on, and short ones at that. I gathered up my stuff, mashed my feet into socks and put them into the lower half of my flip flop cause they could not fit into shoe boxes now but I had to put them into something to waste more time to avoid going to the hospital, lol.

I called 911, they came, took my bags for me locked up my house and even cut the lights. Gave me a breathing treatment and I was off. About I joking and everything with them, just hoping to not feel embarrassed by calling the EMS taking 8 workers time. After about 45 mins in the ER the doctor told me I was having a heart attack not an asthma attack, my heart rate ranged between 115 and 137 plus for the next 10 days and even after the 3 way defib/pacemaker implant it wouldn't slow down much. I'm on a whole lot of meds to slow it, they said I had 18 episodes in the hospital but the urgency of the ICD was to act as a defib cause they say I will have an episode of cardiac arrest. Right now I'm taking it one hour at a time and I plan on being the best I can be considering the circumstances.

5 Comments

Leads

by Parrothead57 - 2012-02-08 02:02:58

I'll just say that I did things after surgery that were on the "do not do" list and my leads are still intact 1 year later.

My EP's head nurse down played all the extreme warnings I received from the hospital staff. The day I was to be released, the day nurse made me wear a sling! I had to laugh because I'd already tossed and turned all night and got in and out of bed without a sling on.

Do what the doctor says but don't get freaked out over it. :-)

Pulling Leads Out

by Pookie - 2012-02-08 06:02:09

I'm only guessing but I'm sure the % is very low if you are asking IF the leads can be pulled out by the patient doing something they shouldn't be doing while still in the recovery stage.

However, and this is NOT to scare you, my leads, and many others during the years on this site have had their leads fall or drop (not pulled) at NO fault of their own. Obviously when the doctor implanted them (the leads) they didn't get a good connection to the heart wall. It happens. It happened to me 3 times, but I'm the unluckiest person you'll ever meet. AND you would know if you pulled a lead because you would start to feel like you did prior to having your pacemaker or defib.

If you have gone for your 1st interrogation, the PM Tech would know automatically if there was something wrong with your lead. If you haven't gone yet, don't worry as they will test your leads because that is part of the "interrogation".

I know it's hard not to worry because of all this stuff is new to you, but stressing isn't going to improve anything. If you are really really really concerned and haven't had your 1st interrogation - call and see if you can get in sooner rather than later for your peace of mind.

Take care,
Pookie

Not consumed with worry

by howdoyoumendabrokenheart - 2012-02-08 06:02:32

Thanks for all the comments so far everyone. I'm not worrying a whole lot. I was concerned about it because I know that when I'm sleep I cannot tell what I'm doing with that arm. That and the fact that I read everywhere a warning about "that arm". LOL. It does make you concerned. I would not want to do anything to have to have them put back. I just want to heal and move forward. Between "that arm" and the "let the strips fall by themselves and don't get soap on them" it can add to an already stressful situation.

Fallout

by Zia - 2012-02-08 08:02:02

Once the leads are healed in, it's pretty hard to get them to "fall out" or even pull out; BUT, that's after they are healed in. Mine came out between the time they were implanted and the first checkup (the next day) To me, that's just PPP p__ poor planting.

So don't worry, be happy, you're probably done fine.

I'll second what Patch said

by donr - 2012-02-08 11:02:23

Patch - I cannot recall EVER reading of someone actually pulling a lead out of an implant site. They have all been faulty implants. I once likened the implant as Capt Ahab sticking his harpoon in Moby Dick's flank while talking about it w/ my cardio. He got a bit testy & informed me that it was a bit more complex than sticking a harpoon in a whale - the whale was moving back & forth & it took a long time to learn how to do the procedure. When he was finished, I felt a bit chastised!

I can only give you one data point on the difficulty of dislodging a harpoon - MY OWN.

I had a lead replacement 19 March 2007. On 12 June I stopped a Jeep Cherokee doing 35 mph w/ my right shoulder. That was about 12 weeks later. My cardio was VERY concerned about the harpoon being dislodged & had a cow when I told him that no one in the trauma center ever looked at my PM. Not even a download. He immediately had me X-rayed for this. Found nothing. Both leads were firmly attached to my heart wall.

He dictated a memo to the EP who did the job. His exact words were "...ask Schmaltz what the Hell he used to embed Schmedlapp's lead - was it concrete?..." So those things take root pretty fast.

One thought I've had many times, looking at X-rays of PM installs - There is so much extra wire they leave in you between the PM connection & the entrance to the vein that it would be difficult to stretch out all that slack to even begin to pull on the leads at the point where they enter the vein. Also, the vein MUST take a grip on the leads or there would be leakage around them. Then look at the slack of the leads inside the vein. All that stuff is pretty floppy, so IMHO, it would be very difficult to ever pull the leads tight enough to actually apply any stress on the implant site at the heart wall.

Your thoughts?

Don

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