Most Recent Messages in Surgery & Recovery

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after replacement

After having a replacement pacemaker surgery done, do u have to stay in the hospital over night? Or does that depend on the person and how the procedure goes?

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One Week

First off, I just joined this site and I absolutely love it. I've enjoyed reading all the posts as well as learning so much more about pacemakers and other's experiences with them. I just got my pacemaker implanted last Tuesday. It has, been a crazy journey. It started out when I was seven, I started passing out. Throughout the years the fainting never stopped. I saw doctor after doctor and had been diagnosed multiple tines, only to have the doctor change his mind. Four years ago my care team h...

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Having a pm put in next month..

Hi
I'm having a PM put in next month and I'm wondering about the recovery - what I can and can't do or expect to be able to do.
When it says you can't lift your arm up - does that extend to just wearing button up clothing post op ? If so for how long ?
Also I have 6 Labradors ( I'm an exhibitor ) - how long before I can take the dogs out on lead ? I use my left arm to hold the lead and they can sometimes pull on the lead if they see another dog.
Sorry if these are silly ques...

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Pain

I had pm surgery on Friday 17th. Have found it very painful but just about bearable. INR was low so have been having blood thinning injections twice a day as well as taking warfarin. After having quite a good day today,i'm back in a lot of pain and as well as the pain being all around the wound site, neck/shoulder/chest, i am experiencing pain down the middle of my chest. Is this part of the healing process? I'm starting to get worried.

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3 weeks out

I am 43 yr old female, had a pm after finding out that I had a low heart rate during another surgery 8 weeks ago. I had shortest of breath several months ago ( respiratory infections). Other than that no health issues , no meds. Yesterday and today, I feel shorter of breath after walking, light head ach. I have an appointment with my cardio and the pm rep. I am very active, wondering if anyone has figured this out? I have read so post and I have not read many positive post. I feel very ov...

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squishing sound

Just need to know if its normal. I am only 5 days out and just showered for the first time. I was towel drying it off, patting it off and it was making squishy sounds. Need to know if i need to call medtronic or my surgeon. Please help.

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After 4&½ weeks

Have funny bone tingling from arm down to hand and fingers. Had a Medtronic ICD implanted over a month ago and along with the above tingling, also have small amount of pain at incision and more pain around back of shoulder and vicinity. No more driving restrictions however have a few more weeks before I am allowed to raise hand/arm above head. Disturbing that I have this arm & hand feeling (kind of like arthritis in hand). Emailed it to my electrophysiologist but his return email didn't comm...

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musical instruments?

Hi, had my battery changed 30/09/14 (2weeks ago). I play violin and double bass, does anyone know how long till I will be able to play again?

My PM is on my left shoulder.

Thanks
Nia

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All New To Me :)

So its Oct 14, 2014.......I recently had a dual chamber pacer implanted on Sept 30, 2014. I really didn't have much pain at all with the implant, just sore which is normal with any surgery. But as of lately, the past 2-3 days its driving me crazy as , I am noticing the pacemaker more and more...not meaning like feeling it with my fingers, but just the odd foreign object that is there is really apparent to me. I think mostly due to the swelling going down now and incision trying to heal, and oh i...

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My Wound

Hi my Friends
Wish you all the best.
It has been almost 2 years since I have my PM.
So far so good except that my wound doesn't close as it should.
3 months ago i had an other surgery because my Doctor said my leads should go deeper.
But it still doesn't look good.

Is There Any Medicine that helps my skin to get normally???

( Because it looks more as an skin problem )

An other thing, God has blessed me with Twins (a boy and a girl)

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Infected?

Hey guys I'm 4 days out from having my pm put in. Yesterday I noticed I was getting red around the incision. I'm a nurse so I know that's pretty common and to be expected after trauma... However today it's red in a much larger area n hot to the touch. I'm on antibiotics and I don't have a fever.... Should I be concerned?

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No Meds

Hello, Today is day one after having my 2nd PM replaced with a shiny new Medtronic. Since my husband is unable to drive, I insisted on having it done without any kind of pain medication or sedation. I was given .25 xanax during pre-op and was fully awake during the procedure. While I can't say this is the answer for everyone, it did work for us. PM replaced at 4pm and I was home eating a Cuban sandwich from my favorite restaurant (take out of course) at 730pm.

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1 day post op

Hey guys! I'm 1 day post op and doing really well. I of course have some pain and swelling but nothing as bad as I feared. My shortness or breath improved instantly so I'm feeling good about this so far!! :)

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Question RE Defib Replacement

Hi all! I'm wondering if anybody could shine some light on how far in advance you were notified you'd be getting an ICD replacement.

Some info:

After a cardiac arrest event, the Cleveland Clinic discovered I had long q t syndrome. I got a St. Jude defib implanted August 2008. I go for check ups annually. I'm about to need a new defib. I usually send a remote transmission annually (and visit the CC once a year) but I'm now sending transmissions about every 4 weeks. I was to...

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Lead complications

I had my PM put in on Monday. While in recovery I started having some intense spams until my whole body bucked upwards and I could not breath. I had all these nurses looking confused and lost and my husband was having a fit. Come to find out one of my leads fell and was touching a nerve attached to my diaphragm, so back to surgery I went. The next morning when the PM rep came to test my PM he noticed something was not right, so I went down to xray, the lead fell again so back into surgery. It se...

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Having surgery Thursday

I am having a pm put in Thursday. I have Atrial Flutter and tacky/Brady syndrome. although probably medicine induced. I have to be on channel blockers because of my rhythm and they tank my hr down In the 40's. So that's a terrible time and dr says this is the only thing to fix it. Alabation for the fluter is not a option as I have to many areas.
Anyways I somewhat nervous about this and looking for recovery time frames.
Thanks :)

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Will I ever "get used" to my pacemaker?

I received my first pm a couple of months ago. Probably the biggest bother to me at this point has been the discomfort that I feel from having that thing inserted in my shoulder! Many times I don't notice it but other times it feels like a big bruise or maybe like having a cell phone taped REALLY tightly to the front of my left shoulder!

I'm just wondering if EVENTUALLY I body might "loosen up" a little around this foreign object and learn to live with it?...i.e. without (light) p...

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Pain

I'm just a bit over a week recovering from getting my pacemaker implanted. Most of the last few days I'm only aware of the pacemaker because it was fairly traumatic of the realization that I needed one at the age of 26, but that's not my question.

Sometimes after light activity I feel an intense pressure on my upper chest. No arm, jaw, or back pain. It fades over the next ten minuets decreasing in severity. No big deal? I've been feeling it for the last few days and just figured it w...

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help me out

CRT-D installed on Oct.02/14 First night no problems. Second night when I lay down on my back I could feel a fluttering under my rib cage. I could actually see my stomach moving. Boom,Boom When I turned to my side it would stop. When I stood up it stopped. Any thoughts to what is causing this. Kinda freaking me out.

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ILR

I had my loop recorder inplanted yesterday. I was told I need to wait to shower for up to 10 days or until I go back for my wound check. Is this the norm?

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You know you're wired when...

Your device acts like a police scanner.

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