Muscle twitching over pacemaker pocket site

Has anyone had any experiences with a muscle twitch on the chest wall over the pacemaker site?  I started to get a strong and visible muscle twitch over that area.  It seems very positional as it seems to only happen when I'm laying on right side and goes away if I lay on my back or left side.  I had a fractured lead four years ago due to subclavian crush syndrome, for which the new replacement lead was placed in a manner to prevent this from happening again.  I have a bivemtricular pacemaker that was put in about 4 years ago, so the two ventricular leads are pretty new, but my atrial lead has been in for about 17 years.  When they put the biventricular pacemaker in they noticed that the atrial leads outer insulation was fraying, so they used a medical adhesive to try to repair it.  Which makes me nervous that the atrial lead has a problem.  I have regular transtelephonic reports done, and so for all those have come back fine for the impedance, but they are not able to see the thresholds on those reports.  Would the telephone reports be able to give them much information about the twitching or no?  The twitching seems like it maybe does synch with my heart rate.  Thankfully it seems like the battery is still looking fine and draining at a normal speed.  I am quite dependent on the pacemaker too.  Thanks in advance for any advice or words of wisdom.  Much appreciated!


3 Comments

leads

by Tracey_E - 2022-02-07 10:47:13

I'd get that atrial lead checked out. It sounds like maybe their fix didn't hold. 

Leads

by AgentX86 - 2022-02-07 15:44:44

If the impedance is OK, the leads should be OK but since you're dependent you can't take any chances.  Get it checked out as soon as possible.

Leads

by JaneJ - 2022-02-07 22:28:18

Yes, it seems like everything checks out well with the telephone checks.  I guess if it's just causing a muscle twitch it's not too big of a deal.  Impedance is always around the same reading on the phone checks.  

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I'm 35 and got my pacemaker a little over a year ago. It definitely is not a burden to me. In fact, I have more energy (which my husband enjoys), can do more things with my kids and have weight because of having the energy.