longing to be wrong

A little over 3 years ago I was implanted with a biventricular pacer / ICD - one of the leads was among those recalled by Medtronics. Last Halloween my defibrillator fired unncessarily - and it turned out the lead had fractured. It was replaced almost exactly a year ago.(By a different doctor than the one who did the original surgery - primarily because I have moved across the state from doc #1 -) Within two weeks I was in horrific pain - and a trip to the cardiologist showed the new lead was not working. I posted here around that time - and am grateful for the wise advise - which I followed. I got a new doc (doc #3 ) - who found the replaced lead was located incorrectly to begin with - he moved it - and since that last surgery - I have been doing well. This past weekend I realized I have been having episodes of shortness of breath (over the past few weeks ) - and rapid (not crazy - but 125-135) pulse. and - the pain from last year - albeit a comparitively very mild, very intermittent - form of it - is back. After all this time is there any possibility a lead could shift? I have a pacer appt. in 3 weeks and I can’t recall another time in my entire life when I wanted so much to hear that I am simply being paranoid........any insight would be most appreciated - PD


1 Comments

Lead Problems

by ElectricFrank - 2010-11-05 01:11:35

I don't know if it has any bearing on your lead problems, but when I was heading into surgery for my original pacemaker, the cardiologist told me that he expected to have problems finding a reliable location in my heart wall to attach the leads. This was based on my chlorestoral levels etc. and didn't turn out to be true.

What I am thinking is that you may have some physiological issues in your heart (maybe the reason for the biventricular pacer / ICD) that is causing the lead problems. I would talk over your concerns with the doc and let him know you would like to know his thoughts about what is happening.

best,

frank

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