Pain from ICD or just that main carotid arterie

My little story . I died of SCD was dead for 6 minutes while Nurses at a Nursing home preformed cpr on me until the emts got there . Was shocked 2 times . I died again in ICU that night and had to be shocked. They kept a crash cart at the end of my bed until they could do surgery a few days later. 5 days in ICU and 4 more days in a regular room . I was grateful to be in the right place at the right time. A miracle I have very minimal brain damage. My medical condition is Long QT Syndrome possibly brought on by prescription medication. I would like to know if any of you feel a sharp pain . Like a large pin stick in the heart , arm and neck .

2 Comments

Post CPR

by Theknotguy - 2015-12-27 05:12:18

You're going to get a lot of weird feelings post CPR. Like you, I went through two bouts of CPR. I was put in a medical coma and was out for six days. Total time in the hospital was 17 days. I know what you mean about the miracle part.

Fortunately I was corresponding with a doctor from (of all places) France. He told me it would take two years before I would get back to "normal". He was 99% accurate.

I made two marks on the calendar, one at the one year anniversary of my collapse, another at the second year mark. If things weren't going as well as I liked or I had a setback, I'd just look at the calendar, shrug, and say, "It hasn't been a year yet." After the first year I'd just shrug and say, "It hasn't been two years yet." The number of times I had to say that in the second year were considerably less than the times I had to say it in the first year.

I don't know if the medical people were afraid I'd just give up or what, but I wasn't given a lot of information about what happened to me. That added to my anxiety. After two years I was able to get back to the hospital, stop in the medical records department, and get a full account of what happened. It helped fill in some of the gaps. Obviously I'll never get back the six days I was in a coma.

What can you expect? First, all sorts of aches and pains. Your brain can't deal with all the trauma at once so it just decides it isn't going to deal with it. They broke all my ribs on my right side, but I didn't feel too much pain on my right side because my brain just didn't want to deal with it. It took seven months before my right side started hurting. At the time I couldn't figure out why I started hurting at seven months, but my brain had so much other stuff to deal with, it just wasn't going to pay attention to my ribs. So it was an indication I was healing although it didn't feel that way at the time.

You may also notice some weird effects in the memory area. For the first 90 days there was a lot of mental confusion. It was like I was walking around in a fog. I lost my internal clock and calendar. Got the clock sequence back fairly quickly but it took most of the year before I got the calendar back. It took most of two years before I got my mental "catch" back. I'd be having a conversation, come to a word I'd want to use and just freeze. I wouldn't be able to recall the word I wanted. I could tell you everything about the word I wanted to use, just couldn't recall the word. Like I said, it took most of two years before that stopped - or, at least, it doesn't happen as often. You may notice similar mental problems. The standard answer I got was, "You're alive aren't you?" - that was if I tried to explain my mental situation. So don't expect sympathy there.

There were adjustments to having the pacemaker. That took about six months. For lack of a better term my heart decided to have a temper tantrum because it was under the "new management" of the pacemaker. So I had another short stay in the hospital while they got my heart under control. It took six months for me to get my meds adjusted. Hopefully it won't take as long for you.

Because of the CPR I had "floaters" in my eyes. Had a hard time reading anything for the first three months. For most of the first year I had weird spots floating around. I attribute that to broken blood vessels in my eyes from the CPR. There was also a white spot on my retina - damaged caused by something - they couldn't determine what. It went away after a year.

The CPR re-separated my right shoulder. It also strained my left shoulder. I took some physical therapy for the shoulders. It helped some, but there was nothing they could do about the bone spur from a previous injury. The damage to my right shoulder from the previous injury was noted in the medical records.

I had a lot of muscle spasms. Started seeing a licensed massage therapist. Key words are licensed and therapist. She's worked on me for two years and has really helped get rid of all sorts of aches and pains.

I also read something - can't remember where or when - that said people going though the trauma you and I have experience can get depression. I worked with a psychologist who specialized in trauma and heart problems. She really helped. If you don't want to go the psychologist route, talking with a disinterested third party who can do counseling (I feel) can help.

You're the only other person I know who survived two rounds of CPR. We're a pretty rare breed. It's really chilling when you look at the survival statistics on CPR. So if you have further specific questions, feel free to contact me via the private mail on this forum.

You're alive - that's the good part. It's a slow recovery but don't get discouraged. Just take one day at a time and you'll get there.

I wish you the best for both a good and speedy recovery.

Miracles We Are

by lizzymag58 - 2015-12-27 05:12:59

Thank you very much . I agree with you on them telling you your alive . Yes makes you wonder why . Why did we make it. Will we ever know? I actually had a Cardiologist from another Doctor's office ask me in the ICU if I remembered anything in those 6 minutes ? He was doing rounds while mine was out of town .I actually did remember some things but just don't know who I was speaking to . You are so right about those words . Makes me so mad I could bite a nail into . Because I know it in my head just cant spit it out . I also had trouble trying to count out change at the light company one day . I'm so happy you made it too . What miracles we are . Thank you

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