Two Weeks Post Implant

• by BatteryOperated
• 2008-10-02 02:10:18
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1675 views
• 1 comments

Well, I got my PM implanted on 17Sept08- two weeks ago.
I panicked about 2 weeks before the surgery that maybe I shouldn't go through with it, but I managed to get a hold of myself after a few days and not chicken out. I said to myself: you're going to get it (PM) and you're going to love it. That philosophy appealed to me in a wryly humorous way so that I was able to just accept going through with it.

The procedure went very well. I only experienced minor discomfort and only if I moved my arm. The sedation wore off in a couple of hours and I felt I was ready to go home. Of course, I had to remain in the hospital for 24 hrs. for observation. The only thing really bothering me was severe itching. I am allergic to the adhesives used to attach things to my skin and I must have had about 15 places where tapes and patches of various sorts were applied to my body. Some were removed within a few hours after the surgery, but I still had to keep the ECG leads attached, and the incision site and IV line had to remain taped up. They gave me some benadryl (orally) for the itching which took the edge off enough so I could sleep. I never even took any of the percoset tablets that were prescribed post-op.

I got rather stir crazy that night and started pacing around the telemetry unit. The unit was arranged in a big circle with the patients in rooms around the perimeter and a big nursing/ technical monitoring station in the center. So, actually I was doing "laps" around and around the unit rather than any up-and-down pacing. I could tell that the staff was a bit
disturbed that I wouldn't stay put but ultimately they are supposed to encourage you to move about somewhat so I just kept doing laps.

The worst thing about the whole experience was the "heart healthy" diet that my doctor ordered. Institutional food isn't that great to begin with with the gristly mystery meat and all. When you take out the salt, fat, and caffiene there's nothing left worth eating. It would make sense if I had clogged arteries or high blood pressure but I don't. I have SSS/RBBB so you could make a case for avoiding caffiene but I've never noticed any bad effects from it. Anyhow, this heart-healthy thing was a clear violation of my civil rights. I wouldn't have survived it if my husband hadn't smuggled in replacement meals from McDonald's.

When I checked out the next day, they removed all the tape patches except the steri-strips covering my incision site. I had to keep them on for another 10 days which meant 10 days of
an overpowering urge to scratch the site. I removed the strips two days ago and the itching has finally disappeared. I am now just trying to comply with the arm movement restrictions and generally avoiding jostling around until the leads are securely embedded. I am anxious to see if I will be able to sustain a heartrate sufficiently high enough to go jogging and generally
engage in aerobic activity.

Well, I better wrap it up for now. I really find this site helpful and I hope sharing my experiences is helpful to others.

Francine