post surgery one yr ago

Your problem is actually fairly common among pacemaker recipients

by Gotrhythm - 2020-03-02 16:30:42

Soreness, tightness, pain in arm, shoulder, chest, even the back and neck are common post pacemaker. The cause is under-use of the arm post pacemaker. Probabably you followed your doctorr's orders not to lift the arm overhead, too zealously and for too long. The common name for the condition is "frozen shoulder."

Then, once you were healed, because it hurt to use your arm, you continued to restrict movement. Once, the problem gets started, it becomes a viscious circle.

The only answer is to stretch the muscles, ligaments, and fascia. There are simple shoulder stretching exercises you can do, but if everything is really tight, you need to be careful doing them. You can injur your shoulder. Since it's been a year surgery you might need physical therapy to regain full range of motion.

Don't take my word. I'm not a doctor. The reason your doctor seems not to know this simple cause of your problem is that cardiologists don't do shoulders. The medical doctor who is more likely to understand your problem and be able to advise you is a DO or an orthopedist.

Pacemakers have nothing to do with anemia. The pacemaker is sealed against any body fluids. It isn't part of your bloodstream.

Shoulder pain

by Theknotguy - 2020-03-02 16:58:59

Each of us heals differently.  For some people it takes longer after a foreign object has been implanted in the body to heal than others.  You'll see on this forum where some people feel no pain after the surface skin has healed and others have their pain stretch out longer.  It just depends upon your body type and we have no way of forecasting that before you have your pacemaker implanted.  

Good news:  A lot of the pain eventually goes away for most people.  Bad news: For some people it takes a long time.  

For me it was about a two year period before I stopped feeling the majority of the pain post pacemaker implant.  I still have trouble with muscle spasms from where they put the leads in under my left clavicle - and that's after six years.  

I've done a lot of things for pain management.  If you want specifics you can private message me on this forum.  And that's with no opiates or other types of pain medication.  The strongest things I've had are Tylenol and aspirin.  Also, since I had CPR, I didn't think I was going to get out of the situation pain free so mostly just went on with my life.  Since I didn't expect to get away pain free I really didn't pay that much attention to it.  

Your anemia is a concern and you'll want to get that checked out as quickly as possible.

Anemia

by AgentX86 - 2020-03-02 17:13:09

Anemia is something that you want to have checked out but don't stress over the  numbers. I've been anemic for as long as I remember - much longer than I've had a pacemaker or known heart problems at all. Like all of the " numbers", it's a number that represents the "normal" patient,if there is such a thing. There is a lot more to be concerned about if something has changed. Some are just outliers. Get checked out but don't get too excited in the meantime.

Anemia and arrhythmia

by Pacemaker_Sally - 2020-03-05 01:51:59

Ask your doctor about anemia and arrhythmia. Depending on the hemoglobin and ferritin levels, it can start to affect the heart. 

Thankfully you have a pacemaker so you should be covered! Do you know the underlying cause of the anemia?