dislodging a lead

I have had my pacemaker for 1 week. I was told not to lift my left arm above my head. Last night in my sleep I not only lifted my left arm above my but I stretched. That woke me up.My question is, How would I know if I dislodged a lead?

7 Comments

Good Lead?

by doublehorn48 - 2015-12-25 09:12:38

When I had my first pm, I had two leads. The day after my procedure I was again short of breath when I walked fast. My cardiologist walked the halls with me and concluded , correctly , that one lead was bad.

My symptom was being short of breath. Yours might be harder to detect. I am under the impression that when leads are put in that there is slack in the lead. I wouldn't think that you dislodged your lead.

dislodged lead

by Good Dog - 2015-12-25 09:12:57

It is likely that you would not feel well when physically active if it was dislodged. It depends to some degree how you felt before the PM. I had one dislodged the day of the PM implant and I didn't know it until the doc told me. However, I was still in bed.
The only way to know absolutely positively certain is a PM check. Can your doc do a remote check? If so, I would contact the office on Monday morning and ask for a check.
Keep in mind that it is highly unlikely you pulled it loose, because it is screwed-in. However, better be safe than sorry. Just get it checked. Don't lose any sleep over it, because even worst case scenario, it isn't a big deal to reset it.
Sincerely,

David

Most of the warnings

by Theknotguy - 2015-12-26 01:12:14

Most of the warnings are just that - warnings. They tell us not to raise the arm above the shoulder and not to lift more than ten pounds. That's so we keep quiet long enough for the implant wound to heal. Otherwise we'd have people doing all sorts of things that would rip open the PM wound. Then they would be open for having an infected wound and all sorts of problems.

If you forget and raise your arm above the shoulder, or lift over ten pounds, don't get excited. Just don't do it on a regular basis.

I don't remember seeing a post on this forum where someone did something that pulled out a lead. Could be wrong on that. But it does take a lot to pull a lead.

I was throwing the ball for the dog. Really pulled on the scar tissue and it hurt like hell. It took about six weeks for the pain to go away. But I didn't pull the lead, just pulled the scar tissue in the pacemaker wound.

Hope everything else goes well for you.

Dislodging a lead

by Andyfoo - 2015-12-28 03:12:05

I into my 4th month with the PM and would like to agree with the others that it is not easy to dislodge a lead. After my PM surgery, I was shown an X ray of the Pacemaker & the wires & from there I noticed that there is a lot of free play wires around the Pacemaker for stretching purposes. The wires do not take a straightline from the Pacemaker to the heart. There is always an extra length for the stretch. As such, my humble opinion is that the wires are not dislodged due to only one wrong movement. An easy way to check is to have a physical count of the pulse & you will find out if it is still in contact with the heart & Pacemaker as you should know how many beats was set for your Pacemaker to work the heart. With regards...

Andy

Symptoms recur

by Tadpole - 2016-01-31 01:01:20

Symptoms recur-- The answer to your question regarding did my leads become displaced is that your original symptoms will recur

Likelihood of displacement due to arm movement

by Tadpole - 2016-01-31 01:01:59

Likelihood of displacement due to arm movement -- check out this article about a study in which 10 people performed all of the arm movements we are warned against making and none of them had lead displacement. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2626349

Dislodged kead

by Harry123 - 2019-02-14 09:47:02

Thanks to all you folk who put such positive remarks on here. I had the same worry as cyberggirl and you've all put my mind at rest.

You know you're wired when...

You need to be re-booted each morning.

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