Heart Disease and Pacemaker

Hello, I am 17 years old, and was born with AV canal defect with a single ventricle. Now my doctor is planning on putting in a pacemaker, but he's worried about getting through the already existing scar tissue. Does anyone have any advice or has gone through a similar situation that could give me some advice with coping?

Thank you so much.
Tris

1 Comments

Hi

by Many Blessings - 2013-02-01 09:02:37

Hi Tris,

I had a Bi-V, CRT-P (PM) with an AV-Node ablation put in back in April. I had already had multiple heart procedures, and two open heart surgeries to replace my mitral valve, close some holes, and repair some other damage.

When we were in the planning stages for my PM AV Node ablation, they made it clear they would have a hard time (if they were able to do it at all) putting in one of the leads because of the scar tissue near the mitral valve.

They did have a problem putting in that lead, and to this day, it is in, according to them, "an okay place, but not a good place", yet, is working great! My procedure went from a few hour procedure, to an all day surgery, but they did get it in there and it's working for me. Yay!

I'm not sure what advice to give you since it was all in the hands of my surgeon at the time. He was not happy at all with where the lead was placed at first because of the scar tissue, but was happy to see it had moved by the next day to an "okay" place (he could see it with an X-ray). So even if right after your surgery, don't give up if your surgeon isn't happy with where exactly it's placed. It may shift a little for the better, or it may stay put and work great for you!

Stay positive. That is so important, but so hard to do! I know it's scary and it sucks, but it's going to be okay. There are so many things they can do these days to fix things, and this is one of them.

Blessings, and take care. Feel free to private message me if you'd like.


You know you're wired when...

Three months of free Internet comes with each device.

Member Quotes

I am active and healthy and have been given a second chance.