pacemaker site hurting

I accidently hit my pacemaker site and have had pain for 2 weeks now,I saw my cardiologist andhe took a one second look at it and said it looked fine.I know the decice is fine but I have a lump in the skin area of the pacemaker site that wadnt there before and it hurts now and didn't before.what can I do?they aren't going to take the device out since it doent look too bad.

2 Comments

heat/ice

by Tracey_E - 2015-11-29 07:11:17

Did they tell you to try heat and/or ice? Sometimes one works better than the other so try both. When I banged mine up pretty good, had a lovely fist-shaped bruise over it after I reached out to break a fall and landed on it, ice helped a lot. Another time it was all swollen months after a replacement surgery, that time heat helped because it was fluid. Sometimes alternating works well. Neither will hurt it, so go ahead and experiment.

At this time

by Theknotguy - 2015-11-29 12:11:21

At this time I'd make an appointment with your regular/family doctor. If you know a plastic surgeon, I'd see if you can make an appointment with one.

While the lump probably won't be a problem medically it is a cosmetic problem and worrisome. The lump may go down in time but since it's out of the EP's area of expertise, he/she probably won't make a comment. Getting a second opinion will probably help. Your family doctor may be able to make some observations and recommend a plastic surgeon, if needed.

As for the pain, it takes a long time to go away in the PM pocket area. I pulled the scar tissue in my PM pocket and it took about six to eight weeks to go away. Then, after it healed, I had further pain because I had to stretch out the scar tissue that had healed incorrectly. Occasionally it would feel like I actually pulled something loose.

The PM scar tissue area can be very sensitive. It took me seven months to feel like things were "normal". Then I went back to working in the wood shop. I had to go through another four months of pain and adjustment while I stretched out the pocket. Sometimes if felt like I had a jagged 50 cent piece in the pocket. During the four month period, cold packs, warm packs, and tylenol were my friends.

Hope my comments are some help.

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