Wire has pinching pain

Pinching sensation

by Gemita - 2022-02-28 05:57:17

Hollywood,

I am sorry you are still having pain symptoms two years on.

A pinching type feeling is quite a common sensation for many of us with pacemakers.  I certainly feel this quite a lot around the device area, especially if I turn suddenly, or stretch my arm, or when trying to sleep on my left side.  I don’t think it is always possible to pinpoint the exact cause for any discomfort although having a pacemaker and leads embedded in our chest will no doubt irritate veins where the leads are placed and irritate muscle/nerve tissue that has been disturbed during the procedure until healing takes place.  However a “pinching, pulling type sensation” may be felt intermittently for years and can be normal too.

I note you have had a pacemaker check and an adjustment, so your leads would have been checked for any problems.  How severe are your symptoms and are you noticing any symptoms to indicate that your pacemaker may not be working properly?  If you are not comfortable or are having troublesome symptoms, I would go back to your doctors and ask what can be done.  Ultimately though you need to ask yourself whether the discomfort is bad enough to be worth going through surgery again to try to correct the problem?

If you look under “Q” (located upper right on our home page) and type pinching in the search box, you will find lots of posts to read.  You may also wish to read our recent Pain Survey PDF report (link below, which you will need to copy and paste into your main browser).  You will see that members can experience many different types of pain beyond the expected healing period.   I hope things improve quickly for you

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5rlm7ot7squtkb2/Pacemaker%3AICD%20%20Pain%20survey.pdf?dl=0

Pinching happens

by Gotrhythm - 2022-02-28 14:44:56

If I'm reading your post right, the time when you think you might have "moved the wire" is two years ago.

I'm not a doctor, but it seems unlikely that any problem that occured then would have shown up before now. I think if there was a problem you wouldn't just be noticing it now.

Pacemakers and wires do move when you raise your arm. That's normal. In fact the surgeon makes sure that there's plenty of slackso that the pacemaker and wires can move with you as you raise and lower your arm and swing it around in the process of going about your daily life. In fact, it's a bad sign if the pacemaker doesn't move.

As for pinching, pinching happens. What's holding your wires in place is scar tissue. Scar tissue continues to form for quite a long time. Since it's not nearly as stretchy as other tissue when it's pulling, you can get all kinds of pinching, stinging. pricking sensations. I had them occasionally for at least 2 years post implantation, and even after 10 years I sometimes feel a twinge or itch way deep inside under the breast area. The doctor assures me it's just a nerve sounding off.

It's irritating I know, but ususally not a sign anything is wrong with the wires. If it's really bothering me, I have found that holding an icepack to the area just for a minute or two is enough to calm the nerves in the area and make the feeling go away.