Burning Pain around PM and down in the arm.

Here is hoping someone will be able to tell us what this is....My mother who is 72 years old has had her pacemaker for a little over 2 years. Since October, 2011 she has been having this constant burning pain around the PM that travels under the armpit and down her left arm. The Doctor who put the PM in, said the PM is fine. We have had all kinds of testing and no one can tell us what or why she is having this daily non-stop pain. I can't help but think it is a lead or a loose wire....It has to be something. My heart is broken for her because she does a lot of crying because of this pain...Any suggestions, ideas, experience? Anything...Thank you so much in advance....Teri

4 Comments

Mother's Pain

by SMITTY - 2012-04-02 11:04:29

Hello Teri,

I can't tell you what is causing your Mother such pain, but I'll bet my last nickel it is something involving the PM.

As for the Dr saying the PM is fine, well that could be true. If he did an interrogation of the PM before making that statement what he did was check to see if the PM was performing the way it should for the settings it is programmed with. So yes the PM can be fine but those settings can also be very wrong for your Mother.

If possible, the best thing your Mother can do is get an electrophysiologist to look take a look. If she has to stay with this Dr I think it is about time to give him the same treatment we used to give our stubborn mules when we couldn't get them to listen and do what we needed from them. We got a good sized stick about 4 ft. long and hit the mule right between the eyes. After that we had his attention and could get him to work as he should.

Of course I'm lying about hitting a poor mule like that or that your Mother should hit the Dr, but when I hear of one like your Mother has I always think of that old story. The problem is that Dr has no idea what is going on and his defense for lack of knowledge is "the PM is fine." If she can't get any better treatment out of him I say she should start calling his office every day and if that doesn't work, go to his office while crying with pain. She has to do something the equivalent of hitting the mule between the eyes with a stick

One more thing and I'll quit ranting and let some of the others offer something useful. You said you suspect a malfunctioning lead for whatever reason. If that were the problem it should have shown up on the PM interrogation. However, she could be having a problem similar to the one I did with my PM. Mine was shocking the fool out of me and after many trips to the Dr I finally got one that told me my problem was that some of the impulse from the PM to the lead in my lower chamber was impinging on the phrenic nerve. This is what caused me to feel like I was getting shocked. The cure I was offered was to reposition the lead or deaden the nerve. I took the latter.

There is more to my story and I can share it later. But for right now can you tell us the diagnosis that caused your Mother to need the PM.

I wish your Mother the best,

Smitty


I had the same thing

by ninjaunicorn - 2012-04-03 03:04:36

Hi, I'm a 16yo female, and have had a pm since 18months due to acute reflex anoxic seizures, but never felt any pain (except after operations) until about a year ago, and it sounds like the same thing your mum had; a sharp pain near the site. I had the same resposnse from my doctor that its to be expected and its normal; the pm is fine. However I also have my doubts about his judgement considering I've had 13 years of no pain and sudddenly have daily sharp pain.
But without any abnnormalities on xrays, i'm going to have to ignore it for now, so if you do get an answer from a cardiologist, please can you post it.

Thank you....

by Gardnergirl - 2012-04-03 10:04:41

Thank you Smitty and Ninja for your response. Smitty, I am going to look into your suggestion regarding an electrophysiologist. At this point, I know my mom will see who ever if there is hope for this pain to go away. One day, I would like to hear the rest of your story.

Have similar pain

by BladeRunner - 2012-04-14 12:04:09

Hi Teri. After 8 months of living pain free with my 3-lead pm/icd, I suddenly developed pain that sounds very much like what your mother is experiencing. I was able to have my ep cardio look it over and he dx'ed my problem as "an overly tight implant pocket caused by scar tissue". With physical therapy they were able to help me reduce my pain. I still have some and suspect that I probably always will, but mine is now bearable.
Hope your mother gets some relief soon.
Todd

You know you're wired when...

You name your daughter “Synchronicity”.

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