Underarm Pain 3 Years Post-Implant

I posted a few weeks back about ongoing pain in my left underarm.  Had a check-up this week and doc says no lumps, no bumps, nothing scary, but she thinks I've got chronic pectoral muscle pain caused by my pacemaker! (My cardiology team say they've never heard of such a thing.) I'm thin and there's not much tissue around my PM so it has a tendency to "hang" or move, especially when I'm bending, doing yoga, etc.  Doc says physical therapy to build up the muscles is the answer.  Anybody else experience this?

2 Comments

Chronic Pectoral Pain

by Selwyn - 2016-12-23 12:59:16

The pectoral muscle is responsible for moving the arm down and inwards. Should this muscle be the problem  the symptoms are pain on moving the arm down and inwards against resistance. The muscle can be tender to touch.

To use medical terminology does not enhance our understanding of the cause of your pain. Chest pain is chest pain whether it is labelled 'chronic pectoral muscle pain' or not.

As I  have various lumps in my left armpit ( the same side as my PM), I know that YOU can often feel the lumps before the medical profession. You can indeed get anything from enlarged lymph nodes ( as in my case) to synovial cysts  of the shoulder joint, and tumours. 

Pain can be refered ( ie. felt in the chest when the cause is elsewhere) to the chest and shoulder from heart, lungs, stomach, bone, diaphragm etc.

I personally have very little body fat. My PM box sticks out. It can impinge on my collar bone in the curled position. It is not a source of chronic pain. I suggest you continue to look for a proper medical cause and question how the diagnosis is arrived at- it certainly should have some supporting symptoms, signs, investigations, and not be just medical guff.

Selwyn

Underarm Pain

by laughingarcher - 2016-12-23 18:24:12

Thanks, Selwyn, we are of like mind!  (Especially about medical guff! I love that phrase!)  Seems to me that three years post-implant is a long time for something like this to show up if it's indeed related to the PM.  Turns out I'm due for a chest CT scan (I had a small lung nodule show up a year ago that needs checking on) and my doc will have the CT look at the bones on my left side while they're at it, so that's something. I'll keep on it!

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