My first actual PM check

• by bluebowtye
• 2014-03-12 08:03:21
• General Posting
• 1080 views
• 8 comments

Hi Everyone,
I had my first PM check today after having it implanted on the 17th of Feb. It went really well except the pacemaker nurse's first comment to me was "I was looking at your birthday and see you are one of my youngest patients" (I am 52 and thought thanks a lot lol). I get a lot of comments from people saying I am way too young to have a PM but they don't understand that electrical problems of the heart can happen to people of all ages and I really didn't know that either until I came to this site. Every time I have been in the waiting room I have noticed everyone else in there is considerably older than me! Anyway, she said everything looks excellent. I am pacing 14.1% of the time. She said I have had no arrhythmia's and the battery should be good for about 9 1/2 years. I asked her about the discomfort I feel in my chest/armpit area and she said that is normal and that it could take a good 3 -9 months to get completely healed. She did give me a copy of the report but I didn't understand it all but will do some research here to try and figure it out. I saw my cardiologist next and he was really pleased with everything too. He did not think my settings needed adjusted at this time. It is set at 60 bpm and my pulse was 74 which is pretty normal for me. He said he wants my own heart to do as much of the work as possible. When he looked at my incision he noticed there was still a small scab on one end which I have noticed too and wondered why it hadn't fallen off. He picked at it and said there was still a stitch in there. He tried pulling it out and then had to go find some tweezers and scissors. The scissors were really dull and he was pulling and tugging on it and finally after a bit of pain he finally got it out but the incision broke open some and started bleeding. He was a little bummed because I have a tattoo there and he tried so hard to not mess it up. He decided to not put another stitch in but to close it with steri-strips. He told me to keep an eye on it and to come back and see him in 2 weeks to make sure it is healing ok. Other than that I was happy to get such a good report. In 3 months I get to try the remote thing so I'm happy I don't have to miss any more work for awhile. I hope you all are doing well. Take care and have a good day!

~Sheila