Fear of lead pulling out

Hi everyone, i am 39 years old.new on this site and my first post. I had my icd implant on the 4/7 17, after surviving cardiac arrest on the 7/4/17, 6 weeks post partum.  I am abit scared of the lead because i am doing light lifting and pulling as i have got a 5 months old baby and  a toddler, i have been diagnoose with vetricular myocardial noncompaction cardiomyopthy.  I am struggling with anxiety due to my heart problem and fear of been shock or the leads of the icd pulling off. Please i will need advice from anyone in a similar situation or have been through in the past, i never had any heart  problem before, it all happened after pregnacy and i am hoping everything will go back to normal .but still finding it difficult to be by myself because of the fear of it happening again and the recovering process seems endless.

5 Comments

Lead displacement.

by Selwyn - 2017-07-20 10:27:33

hi, Welcome to the club.

You join me in the cardiomyopathy thing. Providing that the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is non obstructive your life expectancy is the same as the expected. My cardiac arrests were all at night and spontaneously corrected themselves. Thank goodness I have a PM now, in effect it does away with the chance of it happening again. 

It is really hard to displace and pull out a lead. The longer the lead has been in place the lower the chance of being pulled out. If you look at the sports sections folk with PMs are doing about everything from tennis to weight lifting. At 6 weeks you should be able to do whatever you want. I was back swimming front crawl with my arm fully extended. 

I now have 4 grandchildren- the oldest is 5, the youngest 3 weeks. There is nothing I would not consider doing with the children from giving them a good push on the park swings to lifting them onto my shoulders.  Leads are designed to stay in place.

I have recently posted about my cardiomyopathy. If you have siblings, they need screening for this inherited condition. ( 0.2% of the population). Our child(ren) will eventually need to be screened.

Kind regards,

Selwyn

 

Fear of lead pulling out

by Ladyh - 2017-07-20 14:00:19

Hi, thanks alot for your reassurance. I think my bigest problem now is anxiety

i will try my best to over this anxiety knowing that i am not alone.i am glad i join this group 

You are right, our offspring  and siblings actually needs screening.

 

 

Fear of being shocked

by Grateful Heart - 2017-07-20 16:10:38

I thought I would address your other fear in your post.  Most of us who have an ICD have that concern, especially in the beginning.  Afraid to move a certain way, etc. 

I have had mine for over 8 years and have not been shocked yet.  Others have not been so lucky and have been shocked but obviously, if your device does shock you then it's doing it's job.   

Try not to fret over things out of your control.  Easier said then done, I know.     

Enjoy your babies.

Grateful Heart

Fear of shocked

by Ladyh - 2017-07-20 16:51:29

Lucky you, i have read in other post how people have been getting shock repeatedly.

I am doing everything possible to take my mind off, it's not been easy! I will get there hopefully.

Will try harder not to worry over things beyond my control, so i can enjoy my babies.

Thanks alot.

Anxiety

by Ladyh - 2017-07-22 09:45:12

Hello Robin.

I am glad you commented on this post, being a woman you know exactly how it is when the anxiety strike in.

I am really doing my best to distract myself, it's easy when i am not alone but when alone it's quite difficult especially at night, Having insomnia not helping matter.

Thanks for your advice, i will try the serenity prayer when alone , as i am and also keep you posted.

Kind regards

         Helen.

 

 

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