SOB and 3rd pacemaker coming soon.

Oct. 6th-PM for Lone A-Fib and ablation of AV Node(3 leads)
Oct.11-31
Staph Infection, 3 weeks in IC unit, new pacemaker with 1 lead-
October 31st- home with wound vac for wound from first pacemaker. Tired, but doing ok.
December 15th.-got repaced to 70 from 80.
December 17th- admitted to hospital for SOB. The cardiac doctor wanted to keep me in for test, but the GP released me. Two days later I went back to heart doctor, and he put a halter on me. At that time he said he was surprised the EKG from the hospital came back with some regular sinus instead of constant Afib. I never had constant A-fib.
December 28th-Readmitted to hospital because of SOB. So now they are saying I need a new PM with 2 leads. I now just have one in the ventricle chamber. They did evey lung test possible, and that was all clear. I have regular sinus and intermitten a-fib in my atrial chamber. Repaced from 70 back to 80. I feel better, but some Short of Breath
New surgery scheduled for January 9th.
I am so afraid of this surgery. I asked the doctor why he just put in one lead, and he said because he thought I had
constant a-fib and it wouldn't matter. He is not the same doctor as the very first pacemaker. When I got my staph infection, I had gone to a doctor that was 20 miles away. I had to go to the nearest hospital when my infection got so bad.
Has anyone else gone thru anything like this? 3 pacemakers in 3 months.



1 Comments

Hospital Staph!!

by donb - 2012-01-03 09:01:48

Hi, I just went back on comments and read of the horror infection story posted by (scooter4) in 2005. This Denise sure sent chills through me with her terror she went through. I joined up in 2009
as I had my 3rd PM erode & had my 4th PM & new leads implanted on my right side. I dealt with a total of 4 surgeries, 2 which were old site repair.

As I had major back surgery (Laminectomy L1 through S1) which was a 4 1/2 hour surgery back in year 2000. Naturally lots of antibiotics were prescribed along with IV pre-surgery, during & after to prevent infection. Well along comes the hospital bug (C-Diff) which took almost a year to get rid of it.

With having 4 surgeries with PM removal being on the antibiotic (Cipro) an excellant drug, I again picked up the (C-Diff) bug and was put on the last resort antibiotic (Vancocin). It took care of the bug. The after result is now I have to be on probiotics to keep my digestive system half way normal. I was very fortunate not to have my old leads removed & avoided major infection throughout the ordeals. As this infection risk comes up in postings, it's scarry. Actually, it is a major hospital risk. Like the old saying, "The surgery was a success but the patient died".
So, before having any surgery ask your Surgeon about precaution on picking up hospital bugs, last on your list of questions. donb

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I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.