2 months post placement dual chamber PM

I am a 50 year old female.  Diagnosed with a-fib about 5 years ago.  in 2016 I had an ablation that apppeared successful for around 6 months.  I continued on a beta blocker for rate control until recently when the runs of fib start occurring more regularly.  I went back to an EP cardiologist and placed back on an anti-arrhythmic.  Shortly after starting the med I had a 5 second sinus pause which led to the placement of my PM.  I had a second hospitalization for pericarditis immediately after the PM placement which seems to have resolved.

The problem I am experiencing is when I am having runs of atrial-fib my symptoms are much more pronounced than they were before the PM.  I am consistently aware of my heart beat.  I have pangs in my chest I never had before.  I also, have nerve pain in my left arm.  This ranges from numbness in my pinky and ring finger to pain in my triceps to tightness in my upper arm.  I also have hyper-sensitivity over the insertion site.  Sometimes it hurts to even have my shirt on.  The seatbelt of the car makes my arm hurt when it presses on the PM.  I feel like a total mess.  

I had an echo today and everything seems to look fine.  I see the EP Cardiologist next week.  

I am really just wondering if anyone has had similiar experiences.  I thought I would be better but I am far from improved.

Thanks for any help I can get.

Lisa

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

PM + 5 Months

by AgentX86 - 2018-07-23 23:36:58

I've had my CRT-P for five months.  I've had AFib for a decade and had a Maze procedure about 3-1/2 years ago.  The Maze left me with Aflutter, which was worse than the AFin.  Anyway, in the last two years I had three failed ablations and Tachy-Brady with pauses (the longest recorded being 8-seconds), so got a PM in February.  I had an AV node ablation at the time so I don't have any arrhythmia anymore but occaisionally I still get the anxious feeling of the Afib/flutter.

As someone else, here, said a few weeks ago, your pacemaker is only an accelerator, it's not a brake.  It won't do a thing for palpitations caused my Afib.  However, it will allow your doctors to get more aggressive with antiarrhythmic drugs to keep you in sinus rhythm.

My PM incision site and that area around it is still quite sensitive to the touch too.  I use a sheepskin seatbelt cover to keep the shoulder strap off the PM site while I'm driving.  I also have a lot of muscle pain on the left side of my chest but I've had problems since my open-heart surgery and that scar causes problems occaisionally, too.  It seems we're lucky enough to have been blessed with scar tissue that's more sensitive than others'.

Thanks for your comment

by lmhause - 2018-07-24 10:05:22

I appreciate you taking the time to comment on my post.  I knew going in the PM would not help the a-fib just allow me to take more medication and prevent the pauses.  The part I did not realize is how drastically increased my symptoms would become and that I would actually not feel better.  In fact, I feel worse.  Oh and I do not tolerate the anti-arrhythmics well at all.  I get about every symptom including extreme anxiety and stomach cramping.  So, I am currently taking a beta blocker and amiodarone in a low does once per day.

Ameoderone

by AgentX86 - 2018-07-24 22:52:13

Feeling worse isn't good.  I'd butonhole your EP.  That isn't acceptable.  I had an AV ablation to solve the AF/AFL issues.  I'd had enough and the pauses meant a PM anyway.  Antiarrythmics weren't doing me any good either (caused the pauses and thyroid problems).  I wasn't going to take a chance on getting a PM and still having AFL symptoms.  The AV ablation took care of 95% of the symptoms and I guess I can deal with what's left.

Note that ameoderone is an antiarrhythmic and a very nasty one.  I was 62 when I took it for short periods.  My EP said that if I were 15 years older he wouldn't have any problem keeping me on it but since I was "so young", he'd only prescibe it for a few months.  Since you're 50, I'd highly recommend that you yell at your EP about this, too.  Some of the web sites listing the side effects say that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" you'll have "some or all" side effects.  Bad stuff!

Bad stuff

by lmhause - 2018-07-24 23:07:13

Tell me of this AV ablation of which you speak?  :)  And yes, amiodarone is an awful drug.  Damn near killed me as did Rythmol.

AV Node Ablation

by AgentX86 - 2018-07-24 23:42:55

Basically it's an intentional complete heart block.  They burn away the AV node and replace its function with a (bi)ventricular pacemaker (mine were done simultaneously - and EP at each end of me). The atria are allowed to do their thing completely disconnected from the ventricles, which are paced.  The main problems are AV dyssynchrony (atria and ventricals no longer beat together) and pacemaker dependency.  Dependency means that it must be considered as the treatment of last resort, only done if no there is no other way to relieve severe AF/AFL symptoms.  It is the last option but, unlike all others, it will work.

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