Protruding pacemaker

• by LeighK
• 2019-01-25 14:10:57
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1566 views
• 2 comments

Hello everybody! I just want to say thanks in advance for any insights you're willing to share. It's comforting to know there's a community out there.

So, I just had surgery to replace my pacemaker for the second time (this is my third pacemaker) 11 days ago. My concern is that my pacemaker isn't fitting into my pocket the same way the other ones did?! This new pacemaker is the same model and size of my last one, but instead of laying flat it's protruding on the right side, quite a bit. It almost feels like it needs to be pushed into the pocket deeper to the left, toward my armpit. I called the hosptial where I had my surgery and they told me (without inspecting the site) that this is likely because of scar tissue -- that they couldn't put it in the exact same way-- and possibly swelling. They said the pacemaker will likely settle into the pocket and lay more flat over the next month or so. It sounds possible?! But should I be more concerned? If the pacemaker does need to be repositioned, is it better to do this sooner after surgery or later? Waiting to see if I'm going to have to live with a protruding device, possibly unnecessarily, isn't fun.