What's Normal Movement and recovery?

I'm a little over 3 weeks in and am afraid to move my arm or do things "the wrong way". I was told not to reach across my body too far--movement that would be like putting on deodorant under the opposite arm. When I try to put on deodorant, my shoulder and PM site feels tight and I get some pains. Does anyone know if you can do this, bend over, how far you can reach out or across or if you can put a little pressure on the arm (like to lift out of a chair)? Also, when is it OK to sleep or lay on the PM side? I used to put a heating pad on my chest before the PM......not sure if that;s safe now or in the future either. Still feeling weak, having some shortness of breath, heart beats fast when just walking around the house and having some chest pains too. Before all of this I was very active and jogged regularly 4-6x per week. Feeling depressed, anxious and wondering if I'll ever to jog again let alone walk, take my dogs for a walk (they do pull though.) or feel near normal So new to all of this, I'm a bit confused and overwhelmed how to adjust. Any encouragement or suggestions etc. would be welcome. Thanks!!!

6 Comments

Forgot to mention

by Harrie - 2014-07-08 06:07:19

.. The tech at my first check-up couldn't understand why I was unhappy. He showed me the graphs which all indicated a perfect spread of heart- rates. The pm was doing a great job regulating my heart. Exactly what they like to see. Trouble is "normal" heart rate is anything between 60 and 100, and since my average was 60, 80 just felt way too fast.

Takes me back...

by Harrie - 2014-07-08 06:07:50

To 14 months ago when I had my surgery. Despite the surgeon telling me most people are back at work after 3 days I felt fragile for a couple of weeks. I had unexplained chest pain, shortness of breath and rapid heart rate with minimal activity.
I thought I was getting something that would sit quietly in my chest ready to spring into action to prevent me passing out at some inopportune time.
Instead I got a dual chamber pm with all the bells and whistles which seemed to have taken responsibility for all my heart activity. I just couldn't get my head around it.
Felt MUCH better when my cardio told the clinic to turn off rate response, program the night rate and reduce the atrial pacing.
So you probably need the settings tweaked to suit you - make sure you mention the shortness of breath and rapid beats when you go for your first checkup.
Conventional wisdom is that you should avoid raising your arm above shoulder height and any heavy lifting for 6 weeks. Normal movements shouldn't be a problem, but obviously nothing too dramatic. Sleeping on your side is probably just a matter of when it feels comfortable.
Hang in there and make sure you speak up at you check- ups.

Thank you Royale

by deeheart - 2014-07-08 07:07:24

Yes, thinking it would sit in my chest and do it's job was my original vision too. I'm trying to be realistic with recovery and healing expectations but it feels pretty scary and slow. I have a dual chamber Medtronic and as I'm learning about adjustments, mine is set to pace the V 100% of the time and kick in for the A when needed. I developed a heart block 2 Mobitz type fairly rapidly over the last few months--this was shocking to me.... I couldn't understand why I was feeling really bad and attempted to muscle through it "as always" having long term ASD--repaired 34 years ago. I was having near fainting episodes, shortness of breath, chest pain, tacky events and feeling the pause when my heart would stop for several seconds --very surreal! Ended up in the ER a few times before this and then again to ER for the procedure as symptoms got bad fast and couldn't wait for my scheduled PM appointment. I did not do well on Metroprolol (given after PM) with even worse side effects listed above. Even after cutting back to the smallest dosage I had to stop taking it. Scared to try a different med and scared about what if I don't. I'm now a week and 1/2 off of the beta blocker and think I'm still withdrawing from it. I had my 2 week devise check up and they left the settings as is for now pace rate 60, high 130 (seems low)? When I asked about possible jogging again, the tech didn't seem to think that may be in my future--maybe too soon. Thank you so much for sharing your situation and giving feedback--it's really helpful hearing similar experiences and that things do get better!

Anxiety

by Harrie - 2014-07-09 06:07:16

My gp told me that anxiety and emotional fragility are extremely common in patients who have had heart procedures. Added to that we have the fear ( rational or irrational) of displacing the leads, something about which we have no prior experience. You have also had issues with medications - I'm afraid I can't help you there, but can understand your fear.
Pete's suggestion of walking seems a good place to start.
Take care and try to relax and always speak up. My cardio told me to keep going back until they got it right.

Walking's good

by PeteFindlay - 2014-07-09 09:07:31

A brisk march will keep your arm moving safely. At 3 weeks, I still had some tightness and aching, which was actually a good reminder not to raise my arm too high. The clinic was happy for me to start running again at 3 weeks, but I left it till a full 4 weeks. I still had some discomfort or 'bouncing' in the chest, but that seemed to settle after a few minutes down the road.

2 months in, and most of the time I'm completely unaware. That's not to say I've reached 'acceptance' - every day I'll remind myself I've got a PM, and it still shocks me (mentally - I don't have a defibrillator!).

I also had issues with the default settings on the PM intiially. Min rate of 60 was too fast for me, and some settings for ventricular pacing were uncomfortable (PR interval to trigger pacing was too short for me by default). I asked for a check that all was ok at 3 weeks. Even though everything was functioning fine, it didn't feel right. A few tweaks made so much difference.

Pete

Three weeks in myself

by TPMan - 2014-07-13 05:07:23

Hi Deeheart, I am three weeks in myself. I was very careful the first three days, wore the sling all day, then started progressively doing more. I am careful but using my are with the PM all the time, just not reaching much but and doing things around the house (cleaning up, dishes, working in garage, etc) I started walking the second day and am walking thirty minutes or more a day. I had my initial checkup after ten days and all was ok, I am pacing 93% of time. My history was that I was feeling lousy all the time and after a Halter study, found my heart was usually in the 40's and sometimes in the 20's.

I stopped sleeping with sling after three weeks but was concerned about lifting arm over head while sleeping as I was advised to not do that for six weeks. I fashioned a sling like device from a clean piece of clothes line, basically two slip knots tied to wrist and ankle, really better that that sling.

Minimal pin at this point and I find a reusable ice pack works well with some Aleve. My advice is caution but get moving, sitting around is not a good thing. Drop me a line if you want to compare notes.

You know you're wired when...

You have rhythm.

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