Thank You

I would just like to thank you all for your advise/support it has reassured me, alittle! This pacemaker is a St Jude Identy ADx DR 5380, are they known for short battery life?

The only thing now is that I am worried incase it is a damaged lead that is causing the pacemaker to work harder and therefore use battery life.

My leads are the ones put in 10yrs ago ( with 1st pacemaker), wont they have tissue around them or be inbedded to the side of my heart or vein?

As you can tell I worry alot when it get close to replacement time.
Why cant we have a general anaesthetic then the anxiety may not be as high?

Once again thank you
Sharron

2 Comments

Hi Sharon,

by Gellia2 - 2008-02-04 09:02:41

I think I can understand your concern with old wires. Mine are 26 years old now. Each time I have a replaced battery I worry that the wires will have to be replaced then, too. So far so good. I still have them and they are still working fine. The procedures today to remove wires are so much easier than they were a short few years ago. The Excimer laser slices through scar tissue like butter with very little trauma to the tissue involved. Most times they can reinsert new wires at the same time and you're good to go for another 10,000 miles! LOL As for anesthetic.... I used to watch my procedures, but after 5 or 6 it got boring (and painful) and I got to be a real wienie with them. They started to give me the most wonderful drug called PROPOFOL. It is a short acting anesthetic that they most commonly use before general anesthetic procedures for intubation. It works GREAT. I remember nothing, felt nothing, and woke up feeling WONDERFUL with no anesthesia after effects except for slight short term memory loss. It will be MY personal choice forever, I think. It's the very first time I felt well enough to leave the hospital within 1/2hour of the procedures end. Ask your doctor about it for your future procedures and don't worry about wire removal. If you don't, I promise I won't either! :)
Best to you,
Gellia

Anxiety

by heckboy - 2008-02-04 10:02:02

I was given a little Valium before my first surgery and that helped a lot. They put me out for the surgery, but it sounds like what Gellia described above. I was wide awake immediately following surgery and felt great. It was as if they wheeled me right in and out. I had zero sense of time passing.

With my lead replacement and extraction, I was under a heavier general (no Valium :() and I was wobbly for at least 45 minutes after surgery. I guess they want you out like a ight in case of complications where they need to do heart surgery.

Oh, the wire removal was a breeze... recovery was no harder than after my PM implantation.

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