On Going Pain From Pacemaker

• by TLRun
• 2015-11-18 04:11:02
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1556 views
• 2 comments

Hello:

I am on second dual chamber pacemaker. I am paced 95 percent of the time. The first pacemaker was implanted in August,2009. It was implanted under the skin between the muscle. It all went pretty smooth and healed well. I really did not have any complications and pain was minimal as it healed. And also no pain except for a little discomfront with the seatbelt, pretty typical.
In January, 2015 I had my second dual chamber pacemaker implanted. For some reason, it was larger (St. Jude's) and really stuck out under my skin. It started to move around and the EP decided to redo it. So on May 21, 2015, I had the second surgery. But this time, he made a pocket for it and cut muscle around the collar bone. He stated it would hurt and it did. The problem is that has been 6 months now and its still bothering me. I am not in excruciating pain but it does hurt several times during the day. I can not lay on it at night is this is completely impossible. I sleep pretty much on my back propped up by pillows. When I get up, it hurts and I do some stretching exercises which I do various times during the day. I am actually a very active person and run everyday.
I explained this to my EP and he stated it looked pretty good, which it does. But its the internally what is bothering me. I explained this to him. This EP is really difficult to deal with, very egotistical and downright condescending. He is impossible to talk to. If not for the shortage of his specialty in the field of EP, he would not have a job. He is notoriously known for his personality and blow-ups. He basically told me to deal with it as he could not do anything more.
So, now I am pretty much on my own. I am not seeking pain medication but really don't know what to do. Has anyone had long term pain/discomfront like this? Going back to EP is not really an option at this point. I would prefer never to see him again but kind of stuck.