another pocket

on august 8th, I had what I thought was going to be a battery/generator change. The procedure was done and when I finally got home from a week in the hospital, I was very uncomfortable and the wires were sitting on top of the pacer. I have a seriously compromised immune system that requires IV therapy each month to keep me going. The wires continued to protrude thru my thin skin and my doc was concerned about them perforating the skin and causing a fatal infection. My cardio sent me to a teaching hospital and a doc specializing in PM pocket revision. Oct 8 I was in surgery and when I woke up I found out that the old pocket was so calcified that it took forever to clean it out, fill it with antibiotics and close it. A new pocket was made under the muscle, where the neck meets the shoulder. I am in serious pain, partially because of a possible torn rotator cuff and still have much swelling over the entire area. Anyone else have this problem and I was told the first doc should never have tried using the old pocket.

2 Comments

New Location

by donb - 2013-10-19 11:10:40

Hi, I just read Tracey's comment of finding a new pacemaker site. As I'm a skinny person with zero fat in either chest having erosion on both & left chest site locations I w2as at a complete loss also. I ended up at Harper University Hospital, Detroit, MI where the Dr. Lieberman, Specialist EP Surgeon did my 5th PM removal (3rd Erosion) & chest site restoration. AS originally with early pacemakers were mostly inplanted in the right side abdomen. This Dr.does forums & is well known doing implants in children & adults. As this is my 6th implant since 1992 & is housed under muscle (as Tracey) said in my belly with 2 tiny incisions, pacemaker at belt line & another real small in groin where leads go into artery up to my heart.
This is a natural as most everyone has more fat between muscle & skin giving lots of protection for the pouch containing the pacemaker. I was given no limitations but am carefull not doing heavy lifting. I find this has been like no pain & can truthfully say I'm not aware it's even there.
Yup, & when I went to my local Cardio for my Betapace prescription, he was most interested & agreed that I should never had a chest implant with my body build.
That's after his 5 implants in 22 years.
DonB

another pocket

by copswidow - 2013-10-20 04:10:03

Thanks for your comments. Really appreciate them. I have been using ice on the sites and still using pain meds but cutting back on those. I'm just still in shock over the fact that the old pocket should not have been reused. The new surgeon advised my son that there was so much calcification that would have shown up in 30 years and not the 7 that I had that original pocket. Being a teaching hospital, they ended up with a full gallery of medicals to view the procedure. Nice to know I'm useful for something. I was told that there was NO possibility that the other doc couldn't have seen the calcifications and known not to use that site. I'm majorly mad that I had to be subjected to an unnecessary additional surgery. I basically put my life on the line to agree to be opened up again and open myself up to another potential fatal infection.

You know you're wired when...

You can proudly say you’re energy efficient.

Member Quotes

Hi, I am 47 and have had a pacemaker for 7 months and I’m doing great with it.