OUCH!

I was implanted one week ago today. I woke up this morning with a lot of chest pain specifically right over my heart. I can feel my heart beating very hard, it slows down and then I feel very hard THUMPS on my chest and it starts all over again. Last week in the hospital I mentioned to my cardio that I felt thumps on my chest and was it the PM? He said there was no way I was actually feeling the PM because of the amount of voltage, etc. I'm guessing I don't have a defibrillator just pacer. I asked the nurse if anyone ever complained and she said yes, that a few weeks out people often say things. She said she thought it was them feeling their heart beat differently and they were just getting use to it. That said, I'm wondering if that is it.
I also have a bad migraine this morning. I got up, though I didn't want to, ate a little something, took my medicine, drank a cup of coffee and got on here to ask you guys.

What do you think? It hurts! Not a terrible, horrible pain but very uncomfortable. I have a home monitor that I am suppose to use 4 times a day. My heart rate this morning is 60 (what my PM is set at), bp is 107/45 but I am breathing a little faster and bad migraine.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

5 Comments

Thumps

by 19SRN52 - 2010-02-15 04:02:51

I had pretty severe "thumps" with my pacemaker also. It ended up being the sinus lead which had to be turned off. It was affecting my frenetic nerve causing diaphram spasms (the thumps). This past Thurs. I had to have the sinus lead placed on the outside of my heart. Now no thumps. Don't know if this is the same problem you're having or not. Sounded somewhat similar. Susan

Time

by MrsG - 2010-02-15 09:02:21

I felt the same way you do for about a month. My Dr and nurses all said the same thing that everything is ok and it is just my heart getting use to being paced and that it would get better and now another month gone and I feel GREAT! Hopefully you will find this too ..:-)

Thumps

by cfritza - 2010-02-15 11:02:36

I felt a lot of different thumps by my heart after my PM. And I was feeling the pacer do things, my PM RN wasn't sure if it was the pacer doing checks or pacing me so she tweeked it a few times and finally fixed it to where I don't feel it like I use to, It actually felt like when they put the magnet up to you to do the pacer checks, which I personally don't like the feeling. Hope things get better. Carol

Suggestions

by SMITTY - 2010-02-15 11:02:39

You say "Any ideas or suggestions?" The cause of your problem is simple to diagnose. It is Monday morning and everybody is supposed to feel bad on Monday.

Now to be serious. I have no idea what is causing your problem, but I do doubt that the headache and chest pain is connected. The faster breathing could simply be from tension caused by anxiety. If the headache hasn't gone away by the time you see this, maybe you should see a doctor. As you know there are many things that can cause a headache. As for the chest pain the list of possibilities is long. Everything from palpations caused by the trauma your heart experienced when your pacemaker was implanted to needing some changes in your pacemaker settings.

You say you have had your pacemaker for a week. The initial settings were your doctors best guess and probably based on his knowledge of your heart condition and what has worked best for others with similar conditions. However, it is not uncommon for those initial settings needing to be tweaked. I had to have this done for both of my pacemakers after I had them three weeks. What surprised me most on the second one was that the settings on it were supposed to duplicate the ones on my original pacemaker which were working so well. But after two checkups and having the settings tweaked each time, I still have room for improvement.

I would suggest that if you continue to feel poorly call the Dr and tell them you want your pacemaker checked.


Good luck,

Smitty

I'll say it again & again...

by Pookie - 2010-02-16 02:02:10

when in doubt...go get checked out.

better safe than sorry....right???

I'm not a doctor nor a nurse but when one is having chest pains or feels uncomfortable in the chest area it really really really should be checked out.

And your bottom number of your blood pressure looks pretty low to me.

Again, this is just my opinion, but why chance anything?????????????????? I don't understand that.

Pookie

You know you're wired when...

Like the Energizer Bunny, you keep going.

Member Quotes

In fact after the final "tweaks" of my pacemaker programming at the one year check up it is working so well that I forget I have it.