infection vs. rejection

Hi. I am a visiting nurse. My patient, who became my friend, who became like my family, is back in the hospital to have her pacer replaced, again. Her first pacer lasted about 3 years and she went in to have it replaced last week and after 5 days it was not capturing and she needed to go back to the hospital. They opened her up and replaced it and found that either she has an infection from the leads or she is rejecting them. Has anyone else ever experienced this?
Thanks,
Debbie

4 Comments

infection

by Ladylynn - 2007-04-23 11:04:03

I was talking to a friend about my pm today and how I have an infection that no one can seem to find and she told me that her father had an infection along the leads for two years and it took the Mayo clinic to help him get the leads out and get him healthy again. It sometimes takes several weeks on intervenous antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Make sure that she follows up and monitors her temerature to make sure that the infection does not come back.

Hope this helps,
Lenna

bleeding from site

by patchesmom - 2007-04-24 10:04:24

Hi, my mom had a pm in Sept.06 and in Dec.06 she had to have it removed as the leads were displaced. A week later she had a new pm placed on her right side and now here it is April.07 and the site of her new pm is still bleeding. Have you ever heard of this happening? I figure there is major infection deep and/or rejection.

bleeding from site/infection

by Ladylynn - 2007-04-26 01:04:12

I went to my doctor today and he said that the reason I have been having problems with pain and inflammation is that he thinks my body is rejecting the pacemaker. He said it is rare, but it does happen. Many times the body will finally say OK and accept the pm and stop causing pain and inflammation. He told me to take 200 mg of an anti-inflammatory drug (alleve, ibuprofen, etc.) 3 times a day and hopefully the inflammation will go do.

As to the displacement, if your mom was not careful about lifting her arms over her head, or picked up things that were too heavy displacement can occur. It takes 6 to 8 weeks to really set the leads so that they don't move. The bleeding should be looked into immediately. The site needs to be checked and if her EP thinking it is OK, get another opinion.

Hope this helps. Let us know.

Lenna

bleeding from site

by patchesmom - 2007-05-31 08:05:57

Hi, My mom is finally doing wonderful, after such a tuff winter. She had to be admitted into hospital again, to go on 2 very strong IV antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Hopefully this is the end of trouble for her with her pacemaker, fingers crossed.

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