Recoery from Pacemaker procedure

Hi - Has anyone experienced very severe pains in the chest after surgery. I was crying in agony with a piercing pain inbetween my breasts which was aggravated on movement. I returned to hospital and they advised taking Ibuprophen, saying it was inflammation. After about 4 days of sitting around and just taking the Ibuprophen it got better. It is now 3 weeks since the procedure, but the pains returned a few days ago, but not so severe, but bad enough that I was unable to take proper breathes without pain, so I was panting. I went to the Doctor and he said to continue with Ibuprophen, which has worked. I went to clinical measurement after one week and they said the PM was working well. If anyone else has had a similar experience, I would like to hear from you. Thanks

4 Comments

This doesn't sound right

by RobertS - 2013-02-06 02:02:54

I'm sorry to hear you have this problem but from what you say Ibuprofen is only masking the symptoms and not dealing with the problem.

Ibuprofen is not a very powerful pain killer but it is an anti-inflammatory so possibly something is becoming inflamed. It isn't clear for how long you need to take the medication till the pain goes away but if it keeps coming back I think I'd be back at the hospital banging on the door and getting them to find out the cayse. Sounds as if it isn't the pm itself but possibly one of the leads causing irritation or setting up an infection.

In any case it need further investigation.

best of luck with that.

Robert.

Inflamation

by Jen12 - 2013-02-06 03:02:47

Hi Robert, Thanks I also think the inflammation should not still be there as a result of the procedure. Especially as there were some complications during the procedure (ie I went into "defib" and it was a little bit dramatic, but they did follow up with immediate X-ray of the lung and ultrasound of the heart saying all was well, but I will monitor it. Thanks again, Jenni

Similar experience

by scrappy12 - 2013-02-06 09:02:05

For my last two ablations when I woke up I had the exact pain you are talking about which they attributed to inflammation. I hate to say it but they said the only thing that would help would be time and some anti-inflammatories. One of the nurses did suggest taking an ice pack and holding pressure against my chest which actually helped since I didn't want pain meds. I truly hope you start feeling better soon.

Inflammation

by Jen12 - 2013-02-07 09:02:04

Thank you all for re-assuring me. On reflection the pain always re-occurs after activity - I think I am back to normal so I get busy, but the next day I have to sit quietly for most of the day. So it appears the procedure really does take several weeks to heal for some people, despite the Drs. saying it will usually be a few days before you are back to normal!

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