anxiety about leads dislodging while healing and some questions

Hello everyone. I got my ICD 12 days ago. 

I have been reading that many of us get really bad anxiety after the procedure. I have GAD/panic disorder already and am concerned that it will get worse. I can say that after finding this site a few hours ago and pouring through the forum I feel more at ease with it.

One of my concerns is that the leads may dislodge before the 4 weeks healing is up and I will have to get it redone. I tend to raise my arms in my sleep; already I have done so a few times. When I went in for my 1-week the nurse said that I should be wearing the sling at night, so have been doing so since. I have been careful otherwise to not raise or stress my left arm, and I am left handed which of course makes it harder. And now I am reading about the possibility of my shoulder locking up. On that note, are there any gentle exxercises I could do to make sure that doesn't happen? Also, how common is it for the leads to dislodge?
I am mostly looking forward to the 1 month mark. I think the scar will be cool.

2 Comments

what Robin said

by Tracey_E - 2017-11-12 21:58:37

Ditto everything Robin said! If you don't move the arm, the shoulder will freeze. If leads are going to dislodge,it'll be in the first few days. The rest is precaution. There was a study with patients given the traditional restrictions and no restrictions, and both groups had the same incident of dislodged leads. The leads are not put in tight, usually there is extra that they coil behind the device so it's nearly impossible for our actitvities to pull on it all the way down in the heart. 

thank you for the comments

by ravenc - 2017-11-14 04:18:58

All your words helped, everyone. I am now at 14 days. I am moving my arm much more, as common sense and pain allow. I am sleeping better thanks to me finding a muscle relaxer I had lying around, which is, I think, also helping my pain when I wake.

I asked the surgeon before the surgery about doing it on the right but he said that... forgot how he put it... it's better on the left because of how the heart is situated in the body? I'm not sure because it was right after that they put the drugs in my IV. This is funny but, since we are supposed to hold our phones 6" from the device, and I use my right ear to listen to the phone, I thought the left was fine. It hurt to write and draw (I'm an artist) and type with my left for over a week but that is all gone now.

Again, thanks everyone. I really love this support group.

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I've seen many posts about people being concerned about exercise after having a device so thought I would let you know that yesterday I raced my first marathon since having my pacemaker fitted in fall 2004.