New to PM

Hi,

I'm new to PM and wanted to say Hi to everybody.

I just got my Edora 8 DR-T installed 10/21 in a local hospital.

It was not an easy impantation since they found out that my electrical conduct to the lower body is weak and keeps degenerating. That's why they tried to connect it to a specific spot which leads to the lower body.

The whole procedure including checking "voltage" to extremeties took around 3.5 hours.

My symptoms were/are brady/tachycardia with arrhytmias in the low 40 higher 30's

 

Everything went fast. I had a syncope 2 1/2 months ago and got checkup with Cardiologist, stress test, Angio Tac, Cateterism, MRI, Ultrasound......the whole nine yard.

Finally the cardiac electrophysiologist found my problem and it was solved in a matter of 1 week.

 

I'm on my second day with "Lucille" my PM and I feel good, still with a little pain. but really optimistic.

 

So to wrap up Hi everybody.

 

This forum had helped me to prep for my surgery and hopefully any post op questions .

 

 

7 Comments

Welcome!

by Julros - 2021-10-23 12:23:25

Hi Farmer. You should certainly be feeling better with Lucille on board now. The pain will resolve and once they get your settings just right, you will feel like a new person! 

Welcome

by AgentX86 - 2021-10-23 15:37:06

Welcome, Farmer.  We wish you had no reason to find us but here we are.

I assume that since you had a syncope event that your cardiologist also had you wear a Holter monitor for some period.  That should have nailed down the source of your tachy/Brady.

I assume that when you say "leads to the lower body", you ment to the ventricles and when you say "voltage to extremeties'' that you meant measuring the ventricular capture voltage. In any case, 3-1/2 hours is a very long time.  I had two leads placed in the ventricles, one is a tough one, and an A/V ablation and it didn't take more than an hour.  I had two EPs working on me but there was more to do.  One did the PM and the other the A/V ablation (the A/V ablation requires a PM at the same time).

Anyway, we wish yu a speedy recovery and it seems that your head is in the right place to get this behind you very quickly.

 

New to PM

by Farmer - 2021-10-23 20:31:10

Thank you for your comments and aclarations.

 

Yes I meant the ventricles and capture voltage.

I just got back from the hospital and haven't had a chance to talk to my EP about anything really.

 

It was quiet a painful experience placing the PM and I'm still a little shocked about the amount of pain I had to endure.

Anyway. It's done and I need to get an appointment with the EP to get some specific answers.

I did find a lot of anwers to several questions here in the Forum which I am grateful for.

I keep you guys up to date if anything changes. For now I see it  as a reboot and will start a new life trying to get the best out of it.

 

Welcome

by TLee - 2021-10-23 21:17:01

I think you'll find a lot of help here.I've shared all kinds of thoughts& concerns. Remember that there are no stupid questions (I think I've asked some doozies!) & there is a lot of knowledge & experience to make use of. The pain you mention was probably my biggest surprise--I felt pretty rough from such a "minor" procedure. Mine actually was minor compared to yours though, 3 - 5 hours is...wow! At least that part is over & you can concentrate on feeling better. Best wishes & welcome!

New

by AgentX86 - 2021-10-23 21:19:28

I see you're from Costa Rica, so forgive me if there is a language problem. 

Did you have the implant with only a local anesthetic?  That's the only reason I'd think it would be painful.  I only had a local and, yes, making the pocket was rather painful but I didn't feel most of the rest.

After implant we have a wide difference in pain level, both magnitude and recovery time (I had virtually none).  I don't think anyone has come to a conclusion why this is but it could easily because we're all wired differently or it could be the damage the EP does (i.e. his surgical skill).  Gemita is running a survey, here, to try to quantify our pain levels and come up with a distribution or at least some information we can use.  Who knows, maybe some researcher will take an interest. You might want to take the survey.

It sounds like you have a heart block but there may be something else going on too. Heart block is one of the easiest things for a pacemaker to fix and it will certainly handle the Brady part.  Tachacardia is harder but Lucille should fix your problem completely and you can get on with your life. 

 

Welcome to the Club

by MinimeJer05 - 2021-10-27 09:53:43

Hello and welcome to the club!

I hope your recovery goes smooth and that you're back to "normal" relatively soon. It's good that you found this place as I found it to be the most helpful during the weeks following my implant.

Sometimes, it feels good to be around others that know what you're going through, even if we all go through it a little differently.

I wish you the best of luck and a speedy recovery!

 

Jer

From a PM Newbie too

by CeeJaye - 2021-10-30 20:50:37

Oh my. It sounds like you had quite the ordeal. I just had a PM yesterday for the first time and found the use of a local anesthetic only was still quite painful when they created the pocket. I kept jumping and I would hear my EP saying 'I need more local'. I wish they had given me more Versed so I didn't remember the pain from the procedure. Overall I still would have chosen a local vs general anesthesia as I would much rather deal with pain versus nausea.

Day 2 is terrible but I am finding comfort in this site reading others experiences.

I wish you the best and agree that this is a wonderful resource!

CeeJaye

You know you're wired when...

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