After 4&½ weeks

Have funny bone tingling from arm down to hand and fingers. Had a Medtronic ICD implanted over a month ago and along with the above tingling, also have small amount of pain at incision and more pain around back of shoulder and vicinity. No more driving restrictions however have a few more weeks before I am allowed to raise hand/arm above head. Disturbing that I have this arm & hand feeling (kind of like arthritis in hand). Emailed it to my electrophysiologist but his return email didn't comment. Will see him this week (4 hour drive) for follow up appt. Finally stopped the Oxycodone and use Acetaminophen if the shoulder/arm pain gets worse. Am starting sleep apnea therapy at same time. Wonder if the one caused the other?

4 Comments

That's a long time...

by Lurch - 2014-10-19 05:10:26

to not be using your arm. I was told to restrict lifting my arm above my shoulder for two weeks but my EP was insistent on not using a sling unless it was to keep me from lifting my arm over my head while sleeping.

He worried about my shoulder locking up. I have noticed that folks here get all kinds of instructions from their doctors regarding use of the left arm after implant.

I am wondering if you are starting to get some scar tissue developing in your shoulder that is causing the problem. Or, possibly, a pinched nerve from the incision site.

Cant imagine a CPAP having anything to do with what you are explaining....

Good luck and hope you find relief

CPAP also

by flutetooter - 2014-10-19 07:10:28

I felt better after my pacemaker (for bradycardia), but was still tired, so I went in for a sleep apnea test and found I had 51 incidents per hour. Therefore the CPAP mask was really mandatory.

Everything has settled down after about 4 months, but it was hard at first to breathe easily with the CPAP mask while also having healing on the pacemaker incision and shoulder. I couldn't sleep well on my sides at first, and sleep apnea is usually worse if a person is sleeping on their back. NOW I can actually sleep on my sides easily and also on my stomach with the mask on by shoving the edges of my bed pillow under my cheek and other tricks. It will be getter for you also.

I do not believe that either condition causes the other, but that we are lucky to have two cures for our problems. I also have a slight positional dizziness from the hairs in the ears not being in the right position, and still another sometimes unbalance "grocery store/lights/noise" syndrome caused by silent migraines. When all these thing were ferreted out and solved one by one, I am a new person! Keep the good faith that everything will work out for you also.

Nerves under the clavicle

by Theknotguy - 2014-10-19 10:10:14

I had pain going up into my left jaw. Also had a constant crick in my neck on the left side. Sometimes I'd get a shooting pain in my neck and jaw. This went on for several months.

Worked with a licensed massage therapist. Found we aren't accustomed to having something pressing on the nerves under the clavicle where the leads from the pacemaker go into the artery. Most of the pain I had in that area was from the leads. The therapist worked on the muscles in my neck and back and it got rid of most of my pain. It takes time for the body to get accustomed to having foreign objects implanted.

I had sleep apnea before I got my PM. So I was accustomed to the CPAP machine and mask. Funny but I had to argue with the medical people in the hospital so I could use my CPAP while in the hospital. You'd think the medical people would be aware of sleep apnea but they weren't.

Unfortunately heart problems and sleep apnea go hand in hand. So it's not a situation of the PM causing the sleep apnea - it's just a natural progression of the heart disease.

I've got to go back in with my EP doctor. My sleep apnea has progressed to where I completely stop breathing. So I'm probably going to need a BPAP. I keep waking up about 4:30 AM with my heart pounding. I think it's because I stop breathing, run out of air, and my brain is screaming at me to take a breath. Meanwhile my heart has to work harder to pump what little oxygen there is in my system around. Hence the pounding. At least the PM has been keeping everything else going.

Hang in there. Life does get better.

Sleep Apnea

by Griddlebone - 2014-10-20 11:10:23

Just a quick comment on my CPAP experience in the hospital. The ER doc told me that they would call a respiratory therapist but that I wouldn't be able to use my own mask (nasal pillows) due to the risk of contamination. Upstairs, the RT showed up and wondered why I didn't have my own mask, because they prefer that patients use their own for optimal results. By this time it was almost midnight so I called my husband, woke him up and had him bring my facial gear and hose down, luckily only about 3 miles to the hospital. I am addicted to my CPAP and am terrified of sleeping without it - I have horrible choking dreams when I do.

That said, I don't think the SA therapy caused your problem. It could be a lot of things, as the responses above indicate. It also could be anything from a different sleeping position to something totally unrelated to either your ICD or the sleep apnea therapy.

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