My story - pacemaker, staph infection

• by southsidebruce
• 2016-02-13 04:02:32
• General Posting
• 1236 views
• 2 comments

I am a 60 year old man, retired, living overseas. In Feb 2015 I had a routine physical at a local high quality hospital. During the EKG they found an irregularity and brought in cardiologists to discuss it with me. BACKGROUND => I had had irregular EKGs for many many years, bundled branch, etc. At one time about 12 years ago while living in Hawaii, after an irregular heartbeat was picked up on an EKG, the Internal Medicine Dr. told me I had to see a cardiologist immediately!! That cardiologist did an additional EKG and also an ultrasound on my heart and he told me that I had an irregular heart beat. He explained it that at rest my upper chamber of my heart goes to sleep and the bottom part takes over. He said that eventually I would need a pacemaker. I asked him how I'd know I would need one, and he said you will pass out (nice to know!!). So roll back up to the irregular heartbeat detected in Thailand - and the cardiologist said I have a complete heart block, and that was causing my very low heartbeat (at rest it was about 35 BPM). Two cardiologists told me that I needed to have a pacemaker installed ASAP. They said that with a complete heart block there is an escape rhythm, and that keeps the ventricle pumping, but it isn't dependable like the normal electrical impulses to the heart. And that the escape rhythm could fail and if that happened, I would more than likely die as my heart would stop pumping blood to my body. So, there I was getting A LOT of new information and not completely wanting to believe their diagnosis. So, I decided to not get the pacemaker right away, told them I needed more time to think about it. They made me sign an release waiver, and when that happened I started thinking that my condition was more serious than I thought it might have been. Now, I never had real symptoms, other than feeling a little like I was going to pass out when I got up from bed, or when I was working, from my desk sometimes. But I never passed out. And a year or so before the complete heart block diagnosis I had had a stress test where they inject the die into your body and watch your heart closely - and passed with flying colors - no problems at that time.

So, I went home that day, did some research on the internet about complete heart block, and figured that the 2 cardiologists were probably right and I finally did need a pacemaker.

So, I went back to the hospital after about 2 days of thinking on it, and had a dual chamber Medtronic MRI capable pacemaker installed. The EP Cardiologist made it a point to tell me I was getting a Medtronic pacemaker, made in the States. And I was happy to not be getting some cheap Chinese copy of a Medtronic pacemaker that are, no doubt, available at a fraction of the cost, and are probably not very reliable in the long haul. Spent a day in the Cardiac Care Unit and a day in a normal hospital room, and then was discharged. I had my arm in a sling for a few weeks and was good about not lifting heavy weights or putting my arm above my head. I went to a couple follow up appointments. I started exercising again (before the pacemaker install, and for most of my life I have exercised - weight lifting and aerobic exercise), and had been in pretty decent physical shape.

That was in Feb 2015. In May 2015 my girlfriend noticed that my pacemaker wound site was looking puffy and red. I hadn't noticed anything and it didn't hurt. Went to the hospital where an Internal Medicine DR. who specializes in infectious disease found that I had a staph infection in my pacemaker pocket. So, I had to have the pacemaker removed, was on a course of IV and oral antibiotics for 2 weeks, had a TEE procedure to determine if my valves were damaged by the staph infection (they were OK, thankfully), and a new pacemaker installed on my right side of my chest. Had the other arm in a sling for a few weeks and was good about not lifting heavy weights and not lifting the arm over my head. I also took off exercise for 2 months after the 2nd pacemaker install.

I started back exercising, now doing a 3.5 mile daily jog/walk on a relatively hilly route. After the two pacemaker procedures, the 2.5 weeks or so in the hospital, and not exercising much for quite a long time, it has been a rough road trying to get back into decent physical shape. Also, my age doesn't help, as the older I get the harder it is to stay in good physical shape.

The only real problem I have now is frozen shoulder - in both my shoulders. Painful to do a yoga stretch that I do daily, painful to put on a jacket, dry myself with a towel after a shower, painful to lie on either side for long periods of time. Saw an Orthopedic Surgeon, and he said that the frozen shoulder should fix itself over time. And that seems to be true for the right shoulder - feeling pretty decent now/still some pain. But the left shoulder is still not good. The Ortho Surgeon said they can do surgery to repair it, but I rather not go that route. I feel I have spent enough time in the hospital this past year, don't want to repeat that.

Sometimes I wonder if my heart won't last as long now that it is beating steady at 60 BPM, whereas before at rest it was low - 35 or so BPM. So, more heart beats - won't that wear the heart out faster? Just something I think about.

I also think about how if I hadn't gotten the pacemaker, I might have had happen what the cardiologists said could happen - heart could have stopped and I could be dead now, instead of alive. And I also think that if my girlfriend hadn't noticed the swelling and redness in my pacemaker wound site, if I would have let it go long enough for the staph infection to spread, get into my heart valves (traveling down the pacemaker leads), and destroy my heart valves, causing death that way. When I think about things like that I think - damn, yo - I am a lucky guy to be alive.