Jogging/running?

I'm a little over 12 months in from having my CRT-D implanted, while it has been a slightly bumpy ride I'm starting to feel like I'm getting there. I've been attending cardiac rehab (NHS) and slowly increasing my exercise levels. In truth I found it really tough to begin with but feel like I'm making reasonable progress now.

I've started to do some jogging and gradually increased the duration to around 8k. I'm pretty slow and it takes me 50mins or so with some little breaks to walk for a minute or two and glug down some water.

The thing is I find the area around my pacemaker becomes sore for maybe 2-3 days following a run, sometimes it's almost a week before it settles back down. (It's sore enough to keep me awake)

Does anyone else struggle with this and have any suggestions? Or is just a matter of suffering it until it heals and I get used to it?

2 Comments

Sorry

by Czechmate - 2017-04-20 12:01:11

I haven't had this issue with my pacemaker with exercise, but the site was sore for about 6 months post op.    Have you tried other forms of aerobic exercise (cycling, elliptical, etc.) to see if the same thing happens?  Perhaps it's the bouncing that is causing the issue.  I also recall my cardiologist saying that ongoing site tenderness can happen with some people.  My advice, keep investigating and don't be afarid to call it in.

cheers

by DampDog - 2017-04-20 13:11:31

I was thinking along the same lines, that it’s probably the repetitive movements and bouncing about on my chest that is making things sore. While there are obviously other forms of exercise, I do enjoy my jogging way more than anything else. My hope is that as my body becomes used to it things will ease up and hopefully just heal up around it and firm things up. It had crossed my mind to try and support it with some surgical tape, just to try and reduce it bouncing around quite so much??

It's not actually sore directly over the pacemaker, more where the leads dive-in under my collar bone. I'm due to see my GP next week and I will mention it.

You know you're wired when...

Jerry & The Pacemakers is your favorite band.

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