Still have pain around Pacemaker

I had a pacemake put in 4 months ago and I was slowly starting to feel better. Did some gardening and did a sudden twist  when my cat jumped on me. Afraid I may have done some damage to the area around the pace maker hope I did not pull it out of its pocket. This happened a few weeks ago and I am sill having pain. Guess I will call Kaiser. 

2 Comments

Yes cats will jump on anything that moves in the garden!!

by Gemita - 2020-07-25 06:52:39

Sherry hello, 

You may have stretched the insertion site or pulled on a stitch which holds the device in place, but I think at 4 months the device and leads should be well bedded in and unlikely to be displaced - at least not enough to cause problems.

I would still though suggest that you might want to ask your doctors to examine the area or maybe they might want to do a chest X-ray to see if leads and device are still in a good position.  Other than this advice, I would try not to worry.  Time is a great healer.  

I can recall I stretched upwards pruning in the garden before 6 weeks (yes I know I shouldn't have) and I felt uncomfortable in the area for several weeks but it did resolve.  

It takes a while

by Theknotguy - 2020-07-25 09:35:56

I think I was six weeks out and the surface scar had completely healed when I threw a ball for the dog.  I'm left handed and my pacemaker is on my left side.  It's a long story as to how that happened so I won't go into it here.  Anyway, really pulled the underlying tissue and it was another six weeks before I could even think of using my left arm to toss the ball.  

Point being there is some additional tissue healing that goes on after the surface scar heals over.  As I remember it was about two years total before everything finally settled down and didn't bother me any more.  You'll read comments on the forum where people talk about "ant bites" as the nerves heal.  Then you'll have pain from stretching out the scar tissue.  Some people will report sharp pains that last for a few seconds.  They seem to happen for no reason but they don't mean anything.  Sometimes the pacemaker pocket will just itch too.  Then there is the general soreness while the body gets adjusted to something being in the pacemaker pocket.  

I volunteer at a wood shop.  Build furniture.  I'd go in one day during the week and do the work.  No problems.  When I'd get up the next day it would feel like someone had wrapped sandpaper around my pacemaker and scrubbed it around in the pocket.  Hot packs, cold packs, and Tylenol were my friends.  Finally the soreness went away and I can do any work that is necessary without any problems.  It just took time.  

Hope everything else goes well for you.  
 

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