chest pain after surgery

Hi
I am 57 yrs old and had my pacemaker put in this past Wednesday, March 14,2011. I was sore on my left side that night and all day Thursday,. I woke up Friday morning @ 430 am with severe chest pains. They were not the same chest pains when I had been admitted. It was every time I would take a deep breath, but they were consistent and going up from my chest to my throat.. I went back to the hospital ER and they did all kinds of tests, EKG, CT on my lungs, .. They gave me 2 shots of morphine and a benadryl before the pain could even be tolerated. The medical doctor there thought it may be pleurisy (viral), but wanted me to be checked out by heart doctor to be sure. I was brought to his office and after checking out my pacemaker and listening to my heart and lungs he said it was pleurisy and that I had contacted it at the hospital.. He gave me a prescription for Prednisone and today after having had 3 doses. I feel so much better. Its still painful but no where near the pain I had yesterday. Maybe you could ask your doctor if he may have checked this out. I wish all of you the best wishes, This has been a very horrible experience with me and its going to take a lot of getting used to in every way.

3 Comments

Get well soon!

by golden_snitch - 2011-03-20 10:03:44

Hi!
I'm sorry to hear you have to go through this, I know how painful pleurisy is.
I have had pleurisy after having had epicardial pacer leads placed - it was a horrible experience! It happened three weeks after the surgery. Right after the surgery I had pleural effusion, then the pleurisy. I could feel and hear the pleura rubbing (yes, my Mom could hear it, too). The pain started as a back pain, and then moved to the chest, and yes, every breath in hurt very much. The doctor prescribed very strong pain meds that also have an anti-inflammatory effect, and I needed those meds for about 10 days. The surgeon said it was most likely related to the surgery (but I had epicardial leads, so open-chest surgery to place them). Fortunately, everything healed well, and I have never had any problems with the pleura again.
So, hope you get well soon!
Best wishes
Inga

Chest pain

by ElectricFrank - 2011-03-20 12:03:01

I would suggest monitoring yourself for any sign of a fever which could indicate an infection. This can be serious after a pacer implant because the lead wires are inserted into a vein to be routed to the heart. Any infection via that route can turn into a systemic infection which needs immediate attention. I don't want to scare you as this is rare, but just be aware of it.

Since you had chest pains before the implant it could also be non related to the pacemaker surgery, even though it feels different. It's certainly not normal to have that kind of pain after receiving a pacemaker.

frank

Hi:)

by Pookie - 2011-03-20 12:03:21

I'm so sorry to hear what you just went through. I went through quite the ordeal after having my pacemaker too, but it's just too long to write it all out, but suffice it to say that I had to have emergency surgery to save my life. That was on November 4th of 2004. Only 2 yrs ago was I finally diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - as I knew in my heart that what I went through - a total of 5 surgeries all with 5 months (and coding twice), was NOT your "normal" depression. I'm doing fine now.

But I find your last comment interesting in the fact that I went to see a specialist last week for yet another medical issue and he was going over my rather long medical history on his computer, when he was finally done he turned to me and said: Wow, you sure did go through a lot, and when anyone goes through an incident with their heart it sure does take a lot of time to get your self-confidence back.

He was the first doctor that EVER acknowledged what we, as heart patients, go through.

If you find that you can't get it out of your mind, perhaps you should go talk to someone - it sure helped me!!!!

I'm glad to hear you are feeling a lot better now.

Another thing, since I'm on a roll....LOL...is I'm always encouraging members here to ALWAYS go to the ER after having their pacemakers (or defibs) when they are experiencing pain or just don't feel right. Things can and will go wrong during surgeries, it's just that simple. If I hadn't called 9-1-1 when I did, I wouldn't be here today.

So please, everyone - especially the "newbies" if you don't feel just right or the pain level is too high, go to the ER immediately, so what if in the end it's nothing serious??? Just don't sit home and "wait it out", always err on the side of caution.

Take care bmounce,
Pookie

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