New Pacemaker!

I had a new pacemaker installed a little over 2 weeks ago and want to know (since it is so ugly) if I can put cream on the whole area now or so I have to wait to call the doctor....This is much larger than my old one and is the size of a pack of cards and the scar which is not healed yet looks like I have been gored by a tiger.....Would appreciate any information. Also, every once in awhile it gives me pacemaker type hiccups or slammers to the pacemaker as I call them, not real hicupps. Thanks. Joanny33@aol.com

5 Comments

pm scar

by aldeer - 2007-12-22 01:12:54

I am also a senior citizen. My doctor told me not to put anything on it. The incision was covered with a "glue?" with internal stitches and did look horrible at first. It took about a month for the (can't remember name of "glue?) to all peel off. I was not to touch it; altho I could take a shower the next day. Now you really have to look to find the incision. Did not have what you termed "slammers".. Good luck, but just be sure to follow your doctor's advice.

aljdeer

I'm as old as you

by Todd - 2007-12-22 07:12:34

sounds cool to me, relax a little, unless you're showing your chest off take it easy, it will heal,

Sounds like you have an ICD

by turboz24 - 2007-12-22 09:12:41

Sounds like you ended up with an ICD. They are much larger than pacemakers (I call it a flip cell phone). It's around 1.5" roundish, almost .5" thick.

I can completely understand where you are coming from on the look, but it's never the scar that bothers me, it's the massive lump.

New Pacemaker

by SMITTY - 2007-12-22 09:12:58

Hello S.C.,

My suggestion is that so long as that incision is not completely healed do not put anything on it unless the doctor says it is OK. Think about it, right below the surface of that incision is a direct path to your heart. If it were me I know I would not do anything that had even the remotest possibility of causing an infection.

As for your "slammers," hiccups caused by the impulse from the pacemaker affecting the nerves in the diaphragm is very common. I've had my PM for almost 8 years and I still have hiccups caused by it, although not very often now thank goodness. While mine have never been stopped completely, adjustments to my PM did help the situation considerably. Speak to the doctor about the problem.

Good luck,

Smitty

scar does not bother, lump does....

by Seniorcitizen - 2008-03-22 09:03:13

I had the slammers (as I called them) when I got home from the hospital and went back to the doctor that did the surgery and they adjusted that......I will always have the scar that I have. I use cream on the area but I had mine done in early December............Happy Easter To All.

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