General Questions

Had a dual chamber St Jude implanted 10 days ago at C.C. Weston, Fl. Wound has healed nicely and the staples were removed today. Is there a problem with using an elliptical trainer? EP merely said don't raise left arm above a horizontal and don't lift anything heavier than 5lb with left arm. Is there a problem with combing hair with elbow bent? Tks.

3 Comments

Jayp

by zawodniak2 - 2015-10-16 09:10:13

Personally, I would not be in a rush. Give the leads time to settle in, especially in the heart. 4 to 6 weeks would be a conservative estimate and then start easy. I had two pace makers implanted at Palm Beach Gardens..---7 1/2 years apart. They work!!!!

Rodger

THANKS

by Jayp - 2015-10-17 06:10:39

Lots of good sound advice. I'm going to have to "cool it" for another month. Hard to do when I'm feeling great but from all the comments well worth it.

Standard time

by Theknotguy - 2015-10-17 06:10:51

Standard time for healing post PM is 4-6 weeks. You want to give the wound time to form scar tissue. That takes up to 6 weeks for some people. During that time you want to keep the arm moving on the PM side so you don't get a frozen shoulder. If you occasionally raise the elbow above the shoulder, don't get excited, just don't do it on a regular basis. If you forget and pick up something more than 8-10 pounds, don't get excited, just don't do it on a regular basis.

Discussion on the forum in the past has been the leads won't be dislodged unless they were going to become dislodged anyway. i.e. poor placement. You'd almost have to be in a serious car accident to be hit hard enough to dislodge the leads - in which case you'd have plenty of other problems.

What you really want to be careful about is pulling the scar tissue. It hurts like hell. So you have to limit your activities until the scar tissue has formed. Then do light exercise until you know the scar tissue can take the strain.

They had me doing walking until the wound healed. Then doing stationary bike. Finally went to elliptical. I think my first elliptical was 35 seconds. Then went up from there.

My first month back to "normal" activity was with two hour sessions. There was a lot of soreness around the PM pocket as the scar tissue got stretched out. Sometimes it felt like I had a 50 cent piece with sharp edges in there. Cold compresses and Tylenol were my friends. There would be days where I'd do the exercise then have to take four days off because of the soreness.

You can get back up to pre-PM exercise levels. I am. But you've got to listen to your body and not push it until everything has healed.

One other thing.... You may experience some problems with your PM not being "tuned" to your exercise regimen. You may have to work with your EP to get everything in synch.

Hope everything else goes well for you.

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