Pain after heavy lifting?

• by Katybug
• 2012-12-24 12:12:20
• General Posting
• 1098 views
• 3 comments

Hi everyone! I'm brand new to the group. I'm a 30y/0 female, who was born with a heart condition. I had a total of 12 major heart surgeries, from birth to age 20. During that time I had two aortic valve replacements, with the most recent in 2002, where I was given a mechanical valve. In December of 2010 I had a pacemaker implantation, which was a total lifesaver for me. I'm about 90% dependent on it, as my heart was only beating 24 bpm before the procedure.

For some reason, I've never been able to become fully comfortable with the pm, but I think it is due to the fact that I've had an irregular heartbeat my entire life, so I'm still getting used to having a "regular beating heart." :-).

Here's my problem. I taught in a high school classroom for children with special needs for 7 years. However, about one month ago, I transferred to a very high needs elementary classroom, where I work with kids who have been diagnosed with autism. Unlike my previous placement, this one is less academically demanding, but (way) more physically demanding. In the past month I've been bit, hit, kicked, punched, etc. There has even been a couple of times where I've been head butted in my chest. Thankfully not over my heart or near my pm. In addition, I do a lot of heavy lifting, because my kids tend to fall into a dead weight when they don't want to do something.

Over the past couple weeks, my chest has been beyond sore - especially above my pacemaker and under my left breast bone. I'm sure it's due to the lifting, because my chest muscles are actually being stretched this way and that. However, it's starting to scare me because it doesn't seem to be going away. I've even had days when I find it difficult to breathe. Usually this feeling comes when it's been an extra physically demanding day.

My question for you all is, has anyone ever had the same feelings/symptoms as me? My doctor never advised against heavy lifting, but I never had this type of job before. For those of you with physically demanding jobs, if you felt this way, did it ever go away? I'm going to call my doctor after the holidays, but I thought I'd run it by you all here first.

Thanks for reading all of this. Sorry it's so long for being my first post.