Horrific post-op pain when I breathe

Hello ~ I had my implant placed Thursday am. When I awoke in recovery I was in horrific pain with every breath in and out. they immediately put me under again and took and x-ray and ekg or echo (not sure because I was out) Anyway the pacemaker was working fine so they sent me home. It went pretty for the rest of the day when suddenly, I couldn't breathe without intense pain long story short I ended up it the Emergency Room for nearly 5 hours where they took more xrays and did an echo. Once again the pacemaker is working great and my heart is strong. I was sent home with a different pain medication but I am still in immense pain on my sternum and when I breathe.

PLEASE tell me someone else on here has had a similar situation. What was it and how was it resolved. Thank you.

2 Comments

Yes, someone else....

by donr - 2014-05-09 08:05:32

.....has surffered similar difficulty.

Cannot tell you who, but I'm sure they will chime in as soon as they wake up.

Sounds like someone did something poorly while implanting the leads. That kind of pain is not even uncommon - it is rare.

Donr

Been There

by Marty - 2014-05-09 11:05:35

Hi, the first time I had two leads implanted, I had increasing discomfort and pain when I got home. They had made a tiny puncture of my heart wall while placing the RV lead, and that's not good. The pain became increasingly worse until I could barely take a breath at all, went to ER and they were giving me morphine for the pain before the cardiology service showed up and spotted the bleed via echo. I nearly died as they had to go in and release all the blood that had built up in my pericardium, a condition called cardiac tamponade. I'm sure they've evaluated you for that, but if your pain continues to be worse and worse, not less and less, you get back to that ER, okay? It should not be as painful as you describe at all. All the best.

Marty

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