Icd implant under muscle

I am 28 years old and had to have an ICD put in me. I had the procedure done last Thursday. I am very grateful that my doctor decided to place it under the muscle because of my age and size, however I have been experiencing terrible shoulder pain. I have broken my collar bone several times and was in a car accident so I thought I was used to shoulder pain, but I have never felt pain like this. It starts in my shoulder blade and travels down my arm and into my fingers. The office told me this is normal, but how long is this pain going to last?

2 Comments

Pain

by PacedNRunning - 2020-03-21 04:25:51

Had this. Mine is not under the muscle but there are nerves near the collarbone that the leads can press on.  Swelling from surgery can also compress the nerves in this area. Ice and Motrin should help decrease the swelling. It should get better when the swelling goes down. Mine got really bad 7 mos post op. Better now. 

Pain over shoulder blade and arm from implant

by Selwyn - 2020-03-22 08:18:39

Hi there, 

Welcome to the club. Sorry to hear about your pain.

This is nerve pain ( as it goes down your arm). As Pacemyruns suggests a sensible course of action.

I think if things are "terrible" you should get further medical treatment. What you have is NOT normal.  You can get long acting local anaesthetic injections to help nerve pain. You can get alternative medications to help nerve pain ( sometimes normal pain-killers are not effective).  You need to seek a proper medical opinion. Here in the UK we do have specialist pain clinics. Please seek a proper assessment.

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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.