Bi-V surgery, day 4 post op

• by IronMan66
• 2009-08-06 08:08:19
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1592 views
• 1 comments

Implant date was 8/3, it has been almost 4 days since the surgery. Still a LOT of pain at the incision site. Am only taking Tylenol with an ice pack, so that may be part of it. I have only slept about 4 hours total all week. Can't get comfortable in any position, pain and overall distress about having a piece of metal in my chest.
The positives: I can already sense that my lung capacity feels extra-ordinary. In fact, I think the PM has my LBBB re-routed so well that my hear is beating more normally than it ever has in my life. . . so I'll bet my organs are happy to be getting all this oxygen-rich blood pumped to them for the first time. Perhaps that is why despite the lack of sleep, I feel that I could go run a marathon. . . well, at least a 5K anyway!
Range of motion in my arm gets better by the hour. If it was not for the soreness, it would be great. I played the drums yesterday for a while. Nothing crazy, just wanted to see if I could still do it. I am relieved that once the pain goes away and the doc clears me in a month or so for a better range of motion, I wont miss a beat there (haha). Very encouraging.
Took a short walk yesterday, felt great. Doc is encouraging me to exercise, and I would do a lot more it it weren't for the pain at the incision site. Back to work today - from home, but at least I'll be able to get caught up. Doc says I might be ok to drive since that it is a judgement call, and I am not on the heavy meds. Only restriction there would be the range of motion on my arm.
Had my first PM interrogation yesterday as well. I was getting this crazy muscle spazm in my lower left abdomen. Especially when I straightened up in posture. Doc said it was normal. When they insert the PM (on the op table) lying down, they try to test all the leads to make sure there is no voltage going to the muscles and other surrounding tissue. It's not foolproof since the patient (me) will be up and moving about. I went in and got hooked up to the leads and the big computer device gets put directly over the PM. The clinic nurse then fiddled around with the settings - which was crazy - on the computer. She adjusted the voltage down from 4 to 2, and that seemed to do the trick. Truly amazing, and just to think, the technology will continue to improve over time.
Fell good, will post again tomorrow! Keep on pacing!

Keywords: biventricular pacemaker, LBBB, cardiomyopothy, congestive heart failure, ejection fraction 20%.