One week post op!

Post Op

by Soontobewired - 2017-01-17 21:21:37

Hi Megan,

I am 4 days post op. I still have pain, swelling and anxiety. I know all these symptoms will resolve so trying to take it day by day. Hope you feel better soon!

Kathy

It Takes Time

by Grateful Heart - 2017-01-17 22:41:50

It's a shock when we learn we need a PM. 

Acceptance and a good attitude are all important.  The more you learn about your condition and device, the more comfortable you will become.  A sense of humor goes a long way too.

Take the time you need to heal.  

Grateful Heart      

Post Op

by TomL56 - 2017-01-18 11:57:51

I am 9 days post op for a PM and 2 stents and feeling pretty good. The first few days were rough but I am free of pain and sleeping pretty well.

Many people have gone through what we have and are doing just fine. It's a big adjustment and a lot of it for me has just been getting my mind straight with what has happened. The first few nights I would wake up and be creeped out by this thing making my heart pound. Now I accept that this thing is my new best friend - keeping me alive. For me, attitude is everything.

Good luck and hang in there. Things will get better!

Treating the Head.....

by donr - 2017-01-20 01:05:14

.....of a new PM host is an art very few Cardio's possess!  Let's go back in history to that great physician, Napoleon Bonaparte, who ravaged Europe during the early 1800's.  Not a physician, you say? I beg to differ. One day while astride his great white horse, he turned to his adjutant & dictated one of his most famous maxims of warfare - "In battle, the mental is to the physical as three is to one!"

Little did he realize that he was stating a real truth applicable to all things medical - & ESPECAILLY to all things cardiac!

Go back & read your description of what your early days were like when you first heard that your heart was an electrical wreck - anxiety, stress, terrified were the words you used.  How much more mental can you get than that????? Your mental state - fear - drove the train.  I recall the moment my cardio's head nurse walked into the room & waved a sheaf of papers wildly while announcing the following:  "I know what's wrong with you!  You need a pacemaker!" Faster than a jackrabbit on a date, I was crawling across the ceiling swatting flies & changing lightbulbs!  She had to call hospital maintenance to bring an 8 foot stepladder so she could climb up & get me down.  Freaked out?  You kidding?  I made a raving maniac look like a calm mill pond!  Anyway, the "Great Man" came by a few hours later & we had a long chat about what was going to happen - AND WHY!  He stayed long enough to treat my head - the "three" part of Napoleon's equation.  The "one" part of it was the actual PM & my miserably failing heart.  We talked ECG's, PM's, the procedure, what the PM would do & how.  We ended up by discussing Sailing ships & sealing wax, cabbages & kings. The next day he shipped me to another hosp, where I met the EP who would implant the device.  His nurse came in & we spent two hrs fondling a PM, talking about the owner's manual & all about how things would go in the OR, etc.  In short, My mental was prepared for my physical.

Now- I did not have any of the severe problems you have, but the fear was about the same - at least initially during the run-up to the implantation. 

Here's where I had an advantage - I was/am an electrical engineer & thoroughly understood the technical issues of the device.  I could also understand the electrical issues within the heart, so I came away feeling comfortable w/ the device inside me. 

SO - I give you this advice - read everything you can about your PM & its purpose in life for your heart.  Learn all about the electrical condition of your heart & how it interacts w/ your PM.  Knowledge is truly POWER.  Ask questions till you are blue in the face - till you drive your cardio to distraction.  So you understand what is going on inside your chest.  That's why we are here - to answer your questions - to treat your head.

Let's look at an analogy here to 'splain some subsidiary issues.

Compare getting a PM implanted to having a hip joint replaced.  There is a BIG difference, other than the locations that are about 3 ft apart.  1)  You only have one heart, & it MUST function for you to live; consequently you get excited about it when somerthing goes wrong!  2)  You have two hip joints & if one of them fails, you may be cripppled up, but you don't die from it - you just hurt & struggle in a wheel chair at worst.  3)  There are prostheses for both hearts & hips, but one is infinitely more complicated than the other.  Also, I recall one of our hosts talking about her PM feeling like she had "Half a brick stuck in her chest."  Now the PM weighs only a few ounces & the hip prosthesis probably weighs half a pound, but I have NEVER heard a hip prosthesis host comment about feeling the device - either in there or functioning.  Right now, as I sit typing, #2 Daughter is on day 3 of a hip job.  Hurts like fire at times, but NEVER a tweet about feeling the prosthesis.  4)  Face it - the mind dwells on the PM & what it does, but cares not a whit about the hip job.  5)  I guarantee you that the pain from a foot-long scar that looks like half a railroad track down your butt  (& cuts through 3 - 4 inches of fat & muscle to get at the femur) hurts a whale of a lot more than a 3 inch cut along the collar bone that penetrates only a bit of skin & subcutaneous fat.

A lot of us go through what you are experiencing!  You are not riding a great white stallion & associating w/ a faithful Indian companion named "Tonto"! 

BTW:  When you get over your bed rest, expect to feel like trash when you start moving around vetically.  The human body of 2017 is NOT designed to function horizontally for long periods of time w/o deteriorating muscularly.  Expect your HR to go bananas & your BP to wander all over the place.  You will attribute it to the PM, but it is more likely being physically deteriorated from lack of activity - astronauts go through that on return to earth & the effects of gravity.

One last thing!  I'll bet you are worried about what will happen to you if the PM just stops, rolls over & plays dead w/ little x's where its eyes used to be.  Well, based on your description of the run-up to implantation - you will just feel like trash - the same as during the run-up.  You say you have a third degree block - but you also say that your HR dropped to 28 BPM on the way to the ER.  This means that your heart still has an "Escape Rhythm"  that fnctions when the ventricles are in complete block.  Look that one up on Dr. Google.  It will NOT just quit.  PM's are far more reliable than that - they are more reliable than your native heart in the short run (10 years).  So relax on that one, please.

The best to you in your recovery!

Donr

Post op

by Foofyden - 2017-02-02 02:46:38

There will be lots of moments where you will feel anxious and unsure but one day you will wake up and be totally comfortable with your new best friend and life saver.  It took about 2 years before I was totally happy with my settings but every day you will feel more and more at ease.

As Grateful Heart said and some wise horse trainer in a book I once read. Remember the 3 T's.   THINGS TAKE TIME.

All the best try to relax