I'm A Newbie

Hello PM club ... I just had my PM implanted on Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. The first couple of days were rough ... soreness in my left arm, weird feeling in my chest ... and of course soreness at the incision. This is day 5 and I feel pretty good ... still a little nervous as what to look forward to but I feel pretty good. I plan on getting back to my daily walks of 2 - 3 miles and hope for the best. Is there anyone out there that has recently had the PM surgery and have started back to exercising without problems ... and can anyone tell me what to look forward to???? Very nervous ... but I want to get back to living!

8 Comments

Running after 3 weeks

by megarones - 2010-09-02 04:09:00

Welcome!! I am pretty new myself. I just got my pacemaker placed on 08-06-10 and am feeling great. I am a HUGE excercise/fitness fanatic so I started walking about 3 days after the surgery. My doc said I should wait until about 3 weeks after to get back into running, so exactly 3 weeks after the surgery I woke up at 4:30 am to try it out before work. My running actually feels easier, but I am still being careful not to swing/pump that left arm too much. After about 2.5 miles the site of implantation starts to feel a bit sore, but I would think this is normal because your muscles and tissue there have been through a lot. It feels kinda like a bruise. I am holding off on lifting weights above my hand, but I did do some mild curls the other day with a REALLY LIGHT weight of 5 lbs. Best wishes :)

Hello Checas

by Edouard - 2010-09-02 06:09:10

I got my PM in May after +/- 3 years of Bradycardia and finally doing a face plant which damaged my (according to my wife) rugged good looks. I'm 58 years old and a member of the Quebec Provincial Champions Westmount YMCA Masters Swimming Club.
My surgeon contradicted the information provided by my other doctors and told me my swimming days were over. I insisted she check with her supervisor before cutting me up (not the smartest thing to do - argue with your surgeon 20 minutes before surgery) and she finally agreed to do a cephalic insertion rather than the usual sub-clavian entry.
First of all, healing went quite well and I was eager to get back in the water.
Unfortunately, because of the arm-over-arm movement involved in swimming, my doctors were worried about displacing the leads.
I was therefore ordered beached for a period of 6 weeks.
I'm back in the water at this time and trying to catch up for lost time. As you may suspect, the enforced period of inactivity has cost me some performance. I hope to get it back.
I wish you the best of luck
Edouard

walking

by Tracey_E - 2010-09-02 07:09:15

Run it past your dr first, but if you don't have other health problems and you feel up to it, you should be able to start walking now! You'll need to baby the left side for about 6 weeks- no lifting and no raising it above shoulder height- other than that I've never had any restrictions on my activities from the time I went home. I'm on my 4th pm now.

Being nervous is perfectly normal but most of us get over it pretty quickly as we continue to feel good and get on with our lives. I never give mine a thought.

What to look forward to... Here's what I did :o) My problems were congenital so before I was paced, I never had the energy for sports and wasn't allowed to do anything strenuous. The day all the restrictions were lifted, I bought a pair of rollerblades and a Reebok step on my way home. The next week, a tennis racket. The next month I flew out to my parents (I'm in FL, they're in the mountains) and spent a long weekend taking ski lessons. That was 1993 and I haven't slowed down since, tho now I prefer the elliptical to the step and hiking to tennis. Other than sports that risk a hard impact directly on the device like tackle football or competitive karate, there's really nothing we can't do.

One note... often the settings they send us home with are just an educated guess or the factory standards, so it's pretty common to need them tweaked. If you feel anything odd when you start walking again, like shortness of breath, ask to have the pm checked.
Tweaking it is fast and easy and fairly common since they're not always set to keep up with someone active. They *can* keep up with someone active, but most drs don't program them that way from the get-go.

Good luck!!

Nervous Is Normal

by biker72 - 2010-09-02 07:09:16

I was so glad my A-Fib had stopped, I got over it pretty quick.

Check with your Dr. but walking should be OK.

Make note of any problems you have when walking. Heartrate too fast..slow..etc. You may not have any.

My initial settings were set for a somewhat inactive person. Not good for me. The settings are still not perfect but much better.

Welcome

by COBradyBunch - 2010-09-02 07:09:19

One of the biggies for pacers who exercise is your settings. You will need to work with your doc and pacer tech to get them where you need them. Some docs and techs set everyone pretty basic (I was set 70 - 120 when I left the hospital) but you will want to get those fine tuned for you. I am currently 50 and no high end, no rate response since my problem is going too low not too high (although some might disagree since I am a 51 y/o male who has seen a 184 pbm on a climb on my bike this year).

As for when, when you feel ready and your doc gives you the okay. As for what you can do, again listen to your doc but make sure you let them know you are planning on exercising and to have them help you along in that process.

Welcome

by The Fish - 2010-09-02 09:09:09

Hi
I got my PM in March and started walking about a week later. I started slow and easy but was back up to my 2 to 3 miles within 10 days. As was mentioned above, check with your Dr. and enjoy life. All the best.
Howard

Back Working Out in 10 days

by dcat77 - 2010-09-02 09:09:34

See my comments to the previous posting. I probably could have begun working out sooner than I did, but am now doing so 3 to 4 days per week and it feels great. I'm going to NJ tomorrow to visit my daughter and her family and will play golf with my son in law Sunday for the first time since April (I had my implant 7/19). I'm told golf no problem physically and will soon find out. I've read posts from others tho who seem to do everything from triathlons to weight lifting, so I don't think I have anything to be concerned about (except my lousy golf game).

Best of Luck.

Working Out

by greg.bikes - 2010-09-05 09:09:20

I waited 4 weeks to resume running and 6 weeks to resume swimming. I cycled after 3 weeks on a trainer. I still got a CFR (clavicle first rib) entrapment after only 3 months and will need a "lead revision". So taking a lot of time to recover is no guarantee that you'll not have problems due to your activity. Follow your doctor's order, train smart, and pray a lot. By the way, I got a "normal" subclavian entry which according to Guidant was wrong, wrong, wrong and will now get a cephalic stick as they relocate my PM to under my pec.

You know you're wired when...

Bad hair days can be blamed on your device shorting out.

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