Newbie

Four days?

by AgentX86 - 2018-05-26 21:45:06

It's not clear exactly what's going on or your health, otherwise.  After four days, your husband thinks you should be running a mile or thinks you should have ventured out of the bedroom?  Four days isn't a lot but if you can't manage to get out of bed, something isn't right.  Were you active before?

As I mentioned in another answer, here, I found it easier to sleep in a recliner until my chest healed substantially.  I'm a stomach (preferred) sleeper and get leg cramps if I sleep on my back, so the recliner made sense for me.  It might help you, as well.

If you have no energy, and that's something new, your pacemaker may need adjusting.  You don't mention anything about why go got a pacemaker or your medical condition so it's hard to offer help.  However, if I have any questions, I don't hesitate to call my cardiologist's or EP's nurse.  That's what they're there for.  If they think there is anything wrong, they'll get in touch with their boss.  In this case, the pacemaker  manufacturer's tech is a good reference, too.  Did they send you home with a device to read the paceaker?  They might want you to use that.

Good luck with your new friend.  Remember, it is there to make your life better.  Give it a chance but if you're worse off, don't hesitate to tell your doctors.

Welcome!

by tedd - 2018-05-27 01:12:16

i too had a recent pacemaker installed 5/21.

 I am eating right but light, and am not taking unnessary trips. I am getting up every hour to go the kitchen and keeping my muscles loose and prevent them from getting tight.

This pacemaker ordeal sapped my strength, so I rest often. I am giving my body to recover. 

I wish you well and hope you can rest and get your energy back. Rest and relax when and where you can. 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Ted

Give it some time

by Sharon M. - 2018-05-27 13:45:04

Hi, and welcome! I'm 65, F, got my PM on May 2, 2018. For the first week, I didn't feel particularly fine. I was tired, and when I went out, I knew it then and afterwards. I'm in pretty good shape, though, and after that, my general well-being started to improve.  I have occasional pains if I move funny, and then I stop moving funny and they go away. Not in the middle of my chest, though. As for sleeping, I'm also a side sleeper, but I've only slept on my right side, with my left arm on top of my body or in front (but not overhead). Left side has yet to work out when I try it. Everyone is different!

I had a follow-up after a week, and the tech tweaked the PM. Personally, I'd contact the EP's office and ask about the pain, especially if it's not near the incision. Again, everyone is different, but your EP should be able to help figure out what's going on. Good luck; your PM is definitely your friend, and it will work for you!

Hi Donna Joy

by NiceNiecey - 2018-05-27 14:56:01

I love the spouses that think you should be up and at it the next day after getting a PM.  In their defense, however, it’s probably a physician that gave them that impression.

I am your age but got my first PM at 55.  It was an emergency so no time to plan my life around the procedure.  The day after I got the PM, the cardiologist told my husband, in my presence, that it would be fine for me to make a previously scheduled INTERNATIONAL TRIP.  There was no consideration that I might be exhausted, sore, confused, adjusting to a new normal, etc.  

Thankfully, my dear husband accepted my decision not to make the trip with him.  That was a good thing because I was experiencing all of the above symptoms and more.  Ultimately, while he was gone, I also got a DVT and just felt generally lousy.

We all adjust at our own pace - including you.  Ask everyone to be patient with you, especially your family.  In time, you’ll feel a LOT better.

Niecey

Newbie

by DonnaJoy - 2018-05-27 18:37:15

In response to my original post, my husband has been very supportive. I have a St.. Jude biventricular ICD. I was diagnosed with hbp, cardiomyopathy (still trying to figure out exactly what that is), LBBB. 

I have been sleeping in a recliner until I can sleep on my side and that does help.

I appreciate the advice.

Everyone is different.

by AgentX86 - 2018-05-27 20:44:00

For one thing, we're all coming here with different resons for the pacemaker and not all in the same condition before, so it's pretty hard to guess how someone "should" be responding.

"I love the spouses that think you should be up and at it the next day after getting a PM."

I had the exact opposite problem.  My wife thought I should have taken more time off (used the PM as an "excuse", I suppose).  I felt OK, so went back to work the day after I was released from the hospital.  I was back to walking, close to my normal distance, though did knock off the gym for the month they told me to, to let the shoulder heal.  My doctors basically told me to do what I felt that I dould do but to "not push it".

Check Leads

by Dexter - 2018-05-30 13:30:15

Have them check your leads. In my initial surgery, they placed one lead too far in and it poked out the side of my heart so that every time I inhaled I had a sharp pain when the lung wall touched the lead. I complained in the recovery room and they xrayed, discovered the problem, and wheeled me back in to correct it. The surgeon half-jokedly blamed it on my heart being "so small." I guess he meant that my heart was a healthy, normal size (which it is), rather than the larger flabby ones he was used to dealing with. I failed to appreciate the 'joke' at the time, however.