When to hit the gym....

ok- very fit gym going guy.... had my day 10 visit post PM yesterday- everything is working ok but I think I will be paranoid about my leads dislodging forever. My MD told me a story of a guy at month 6 who went on a roller coaster and jerked back his arms and his leads came loose. Oh well....big questions;

1) Returning to the gym? Pull-ups, pushups, chest, shoulders....I guess I will start very slow with legs, isolated arms, etc....maybe at the month to 6 week mark. Any others out there who were/are avid gym goers?

2) I am still trying to figure out what happens between the leads and the PM- do they just get more supported better with muscle as it heals and then you can do more things...any science people out there?

I guess I'll start hiking lightly this week....

6 Comments

leads

by Tracey_E - 2015-03-31 01:03:29

A roller coaster is a lot more force than anything you'll do at the gym. The rule of thumb is 6 weeks for most movements, 3 months for anything strenuous. If you are going to dislodge a lead, it is most likely to happen in the first few days. Any restrictions after that are precaution.

Scroll down a bit and see my comments on the Crossfit post yesterday. I believe that will answer your returning to gym question.

The leads are anchored to the heart wall with either a barb or screw. Scar tissue grows and holds them in place starting immediately. This is where a lead will come lose, in the heart not on the other end. There is normally slack on the leads at the end, they are longer than what we need, so they will coil the extra and place it behind the device. This means it's not usually in tight so if you bump it the lead will not pull in the vein. Scar tissue grows around the device and forms a pocket. It will take a few months, but this insulates it pretty well.

Thanks!

by Eggnation - 2015-03-31 02:03:29

ok- thanks for all the post, esp from cross fit guy, I'll go check out your post.....I guess I'll use this time to do a little hiking and let the scar tissue grow. Thanks for the anatomy posts as well.....I was totally off!

That story is the biggest pile of....

by donr - 2015-03-31 02:03:40

....cattle feed lot paving I have ever heard.

It's an anecdote & I'll see his anecdote & raise him at least 1.

Mine I know is true because it happened to ME. Mine is allowable in a court of law because it is NOT hearsay. His is not, because it is hearsay.

I took a 1996 Jeep Cherokee hood ornament in the right shoulder at 35 mph. Lead was implanted a mere 75 days prior. Broke 8 ribs, collar bone, collapsed right lower lobe of lungs, lacerated my liver, bruised a kidney. Head went through passenger side window of our car, breaking window as it went. Found out later, after 12 days in hosp that I had a new aortic aneursym because of impact. Heart was nearly torn from its moorings. But the new lead was totally unaffected.

No one can convince me that some guy throwing his arms over his head 6 months out is a greater force on lead implant site than that accident.

PROPERLY inserted leads are stuck in the wall of the heart, either by a screw thread or barbs like on a harpoon. What the Cardio doesn't tell you is that they have a submersible crewed by the likes of Raquel Welch a la late 50's flick. It is reduced to near atomic dimensions. One member of that crew is Kirk Douglas, who gets out of the miniature submersible & plants a harpoon in the heart wall, just like Capt Ahab got Moby Dick. Give that harpoon wound about three days & the barb/screw is not going anywhere soon. Give it a couple weeks, & it is pretty well part of the heart wall w/ scar tissue.

FURTHER: the leads are held in place at the spot where they enter the subclavian vein near the collarbone by a gizmo that is sutured to the body & the lead is sutured to the gizmo. Between the implant site in the heart & the gizmo is quite a bit of slack. That lead flops around in that vein like an eel on the bottom of a boat. Further, the lead inside the heart chamber gets whipsawed around by blood flowing through at a fearsome rate. That starts the second that Kirk plants the harpoon. There is NOTHING gentle taking place in the blood flow w/i a heart. It comes rushing in; stops momentarily; then gets pushed out violently the opposite direction from which it came in.

WHAT ABOUT the slack between the gizmo at the vein & the PM? There is usually a loop or a coil or some excess lead left over. It is either coiled or looped & placed under the PM.

If you are going to stretch all that out, you'd better have arms that stretch like a orangutang swinging through the trees.

The main reason leads come displaced is because they were NOT properly implanted in the first place, not because of something the host did.

Donr



Scar Tissue

by Artist - 2015-03-31 02:03:45

The information that I got from several sources is that the leads are not securely anchored to the heart walls until sufficient scar tissue forms around the screw or barb. The scar tissue is formed by the electrical impulses from the PM. During the initial stages of PM installation, normally the voltage is turned up high so that it helps the scar tissue begin to form more rapidly. Usually during your first follow up appointment with your EP, the voltage is turned down. I was told that 30 days usually is sufficient time for the scar tissue to secure the leads, but that the scar tissue continues to thicken and form during the first 90 days post surgery.

Wait till 6-8 weeks

by seenu302 - 2015-03-31 11:03:08

I had my surgery done around Thanksgiving and has do wait till Mid Jan to do push ups and full body workout. Did not do anything other than walking till that point.Let the body take its time to heal. If the leads dislodge you have go through the whole thing again which will set you back even further.

Helpful

by Charlene - 2015-04-19 04:04:19

Love the comment by donr, had my first dual chamber PM inserted 7 weeks ago and had the all clear to go back to exercise after 6weeks although i've been told to be careful of press-ups and lifting weights which freaked me out this week! These comments definitely help, thanks! Im a gym and running nutt and its so frustrating to have not exercised for 6 weeks that last week i got a bit carried away and prpbably have done too much, i ache where my battery is but i expected that, however the last two days i've started to feel like i have heart burn all the time, has anyone else experienced this? My diets really on point so it cant be food related. Is this normal whilst it all settles down?

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