Post pericardial effusion SOB and chest pain

hi all:

I had my pacemaker implanted on Nov 13 2015, but, a week later, I needed follow up lead revision surgery and pericardio-centesis because the ventricle lead had micro-perforated the ventricle wall resulting in perdicardial effusion. (I had 700 ml instead of only 50 ml in the pericardium).

So here I am, a week post revision, and I'm still feeling short of breath and having chest pain on exertion. At about 10 mins slow easy walking, I'm out of breath, and my chest feels as if there's a band around it. I'm not worried that it's a heart attack, but I'm concerned that it's pacer-related complications.

I understand that the lead revision moves me back, pretty much, to square one in terms of recovery, and that means that, at this point, I'm about a week into recovery, but I was expecting/hoping to feel stronger and with easier breath by now.

I didn't have any problems with shortness of breath before the surgery. My primary thinks the SOB might be my asthma kicking up and that it could take up to three months to see improvement. I trust all my docs, so it could be asthma, but I'm concerned that that SOB, combined with exertional chest pressure, could be something to do with another effusion.

The last echo was clear (a week ago), so that's good; despite these promising results, however, I'm still worried about the SOB and chest pressure being pacer-related. The lead revision surgery seemed to be a big deal, and so probably the difficulty and dread of that experience is playing into my anxiety here.

Have any of you experienced these symptoms after a lead revision (or perhaps even after the first placement)? I'm emailing my EP tonight, but thought I'd seek your advice too.

Thanks for your help,
AJ

2 Comments

Post problems

by Theknotguy - 2015-12-07 03:12:56

Post problems you can have all sorts of stuff going on. Like you said, the lead revision moves you back to square one. The other thing they don't tell you is that (for some people) the heart doesn't like being messed with.

I had a blood clot in my heart. Felt like someone had stuck a sharp object in the middle of my back. Then the heart rhythm went wacko. All that from a clot.

You've just had leads put in your heart, then problems with the pericardium. You're going to have some weird feelings until things settle down.

While you shouldn't start reading things into what is going on, your mind is going a mile a minute and starts to imagine all sorts of stuff. Really hard to shut it off. With your mind going that fast, it messes with the heart rate. Kind of a never ending story.

So, if at all possible, sit back, take a deep breath, and turn off the imagination. Just take it one day at a time and quit borrowing trouble. Within four weeks everything should settle down and you can get on with your life.

Monitor Pericardial Effusion Closely

by wxman - 2015-12-08 01:12:09

Have the SOB and chest pain symptoms been the same since the echocardiogram? If they get worse, that's when you should contact your pacemaker doc right away or even the ER. Pericardial Effusion is something that should be monitored closely, and it looks your doctors are. I had an experience with effusion that resulted in serious Pericardial Tamponade, from which I narrowly made it through after open heart surgery to repair the perforation.

Your body does need time to heal. For the first couple of weeks after a procedure like that, it's best to take it nice easy and start slowly. Take short slow walks to allow your heart time to recuperate and get used to it's new situation.

It does get better...

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