PM is in, things are great!

• by JessiWay
• 2010-03-03 12:03:34
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1371 views
• 7 comments

Hello all...

I had my pacemaker implanted on the 23rd of February. I was diagnosed with tachycardia, bradycardia, & a 2nd degree av block. It has surely been an interesting experience. They did an EP study at the same time, they were hoping that they would be able to cause my heart to be tachycardic & ablate the cause. No such luck. =(

They were unable to sedate me, I would doze for 2 or 3 minutes, be groggy for 10 or so then be awake until they gave me more sedatives. It was crazy. The doctors & hospital staff were all amazing, there was no fear at any point. Even when things went a different direction than desired they were calm & put my mind at ease immediately!

They put in a Medtronic dual chamber adapta pacemaker. It is healing up very well, he did an incredible job stitching me up, used dissolvable stitches on the inside, scraped the skin flaps so they were very thin & glued me back together. Put an oval of glue over it to seal it up & voila! Unfortunately we learned that I metabolize pain medication just as quickly as sedatives so it has been a pretty painful recovery. The 1st night was the worst, going through different drugs like I was tasting wine...Finally settled on alternating Deladid's and Tramadol (probably misspelled those) every 2 hours. That worked farely well. The pain relief would only last 30-45 minutes before it wore off & I was left with nausea. My EP told me I was very tough, said he had never seen anything like it. Said he had given me enough sedatives to sedate 3 large men. Crazy.

So now the glue is starting to wear off, all appears to be healing well underneath. It has been one week today. These was swelling for 4 or 5 days, slight bruising, (I posted pictures in the gallery taken on day 4) and it is tender. The inside burns a bit from time to time but that, too is lessening. Every day seems to get better.
My energy level is so much better now that the block is gone. What a difference it made. It is still a bit frustrating that the tachycardia is there, we are unsure where we go next with it all. I go in for my 1st check on the 12th. I miss driving & sex...don't miss the housework so much. The vacation from laundry is great! Loving it! So far all is well, thanks for all the well wishes. Sorry it took me so long to get on here. Take care all!