I experienced pain during surgery

Yesterday (January 6.2016), I received a dual chamber pacemaker surgery while I was fully awake and it was very painful for me during surgery. I was already in pain from some kind of quite severe inflammation in my left shoulder,left arm and left shoulder blade since Christmas eve but I was coping quite well until yesterday morning before the implant without seeing a doctor. Why did I experience so much pain during surgery? I had developed a very bad infection in my left elbow back at the end of March 2015 caused from an infected callous. I was given a two courses of different antibiotics. I was daily agonizing pain for about 1 1/2 months before the pain subsided. Now this surgery might be aggravating the inflammation pain that surfaced in December.

9 Comments

Local anaesthesia

by IAN MC - 2016-01-07 05:01:00

As you were conscious during the implant you must have been given a local anaesthetic. You should not have felt any pain whatsoever at the implant area if the local anaesthetic was given in adequate dosage.

But it is only "local " in that it prevents the sensation of pain in a target area . Is it possible that the pain you were experiencing was outside the target area and was not caused by the actual surgery ?

Perhaps your other problems flared up co-incidentally or because of the position of your arm / shoulder during the implant ?

You probably need anti-inflammatory drugs.

Best of luck

Ian

Pain

by Cabg Patch - 2016-01-07 06:01:09

I too was wide awake during surgery in December and actually enjoyed the experience, but not so sure about the surgeon. No, I think he was awake, just doubt he enjoyed it.

I agree with Ian, however, some people do require more anesthesia than others, but if you were feeling the surgery you should have told the doctor so they could increase the numbing agent.

I am on Xarelto

by BRIAN032352 - 2016-01-07 06:01:50

I have been taking the anticoagulant Xarelto for 3 years now because I also have Graves. disease since 2012 and I have had type 2 diabetes since 2000, My use of Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) probably rules out being prescribed anti-inflammatories. Actually the flare-up has been ongoing since about 2 weeks before the surgery. I did inform the surgeon pre-op that I was suffering from this pain. During the surgery when I asked the surgeon what was causing the pain he told me it was the knife incision and he kept injecting more anesthetic which felt like bee stings. The knife incisions felt like very uncomfortable burning. Anyway ,I survived the surgery and I now have to cope with both the surgical pain and the inflammatory pain too.

Hello again bbingham

by IAN MC - 2016-01-07 07:01:43

interestingly just yesterday a friend was telling me that local anaesthetics simply don't work for him and he always has to be knocked out at the dentist.

I didn't really believe him so did a little bit of research :-

- apparently if people are highly anxious, the strong adrenaline surges can cause the local anaesthetic to be less-effective.

- there is a rare genetic disorder ( Ehlers - Danlos Syndrome ) which can cancel out the effects of the local.

- believe it or not, people with red hair also have a genetic mutation which can make local anaesthesia far less effective.( my friend is a redhead ! )

Sorry to hear that you are unable to take anti-inflammatories because of the blood-thinner. I hope the pain is tolerable .
Maybe paracetamol will help ?

Ian

Hi bbingham.........

by Tattoo Man - 2016-01-07 08:01:49


....when I had my last PM op, my surgeon made it clear to me,.. without prejudice, that as a regular consumer of alcohol I had a natural resistance to 'toxins' introduced into my bloodstream.....and given that I had 'come-to' in a previous op whilst under sedation..( horrible ) we agreed that for all concerned a general anaesthetic was the best plan.

Now ,..this is ME sharing my story..it is NOT in any way a comment on your own personal account.

Here in PM Club we share our knowledge, experiences and feelings on a very complex range of topics...I chip in from time to time...

PM implant is ,..happily,. really easy ride for the Majority..

But not everybody..

Knowledge is power...our old friend Golden Snitch made that abundantly clear on many occasions.

Best wishes bbingham..

Keep us all up to speed on your developments....that way we can all be a bit more informed.

Tattoo Man

I heard that too!

by Casper - 2016-01-07 11:01:13


Note to Ian - Very interesting, I've heard and read that same thing about redheads too!

Hope you're feeling better Bbingham.

Changed my user name

by BRIAN032352 - 2016-01-08 03:01:48

Please note that I changed my username to BRIAN032352 because when I first signed up I unintentionally used my gmail for my username as well. I do not have red hair but my mother's side of the family is Irish so perhaps there are some red haired Irish genetics there somewhere but my mother was brunette.

Tylenol 4

by BRIAN032352 - 2016-01-08 04:01:51

Is it safe for me to keep using the tylenol 4? I still have tylenol 4 left over from a prescription in early May 2015. I have used 1 of the tablets (2 tablets total) so far each night to help me sleep with the pain for two days in a row. I do not seem to be able to sleep without lying flat on my back. I would prefer to be able to sleep on my side at night. My left arm really aches now. I live in Edmonton,Alberta,Canada where it is getting very cold right now. Perhaps the cold weather is bothering the bursitis and inflammation. By the way ,I had my pacemaker implant procedure done at the Mazankowski Heart Institute here in Edmonton by Dr. Tomasz Wit Hruczkowski who is a cardio-rhythm specialist. Here's the link http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/facilities/home1024455.asp

Tylenol

by IAN MC - 2016-01-09 06:01:56

I believe that Tylenol is an American / Canadian brand name for paracetamol ( I am in the UK; we don't have Tylenol here )

If it is just paracetamol , then it is perfectly safe to use with blood-thinners

Ian

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