Lead compromised/failure

Anyone have a lead malfunction/compromise right away? I had experienced shocking pains right after surgery. Sent home thinking that was healing pain cause no one understood what I was telling them & kept saying pain was normal. I had woken up while the caurterizing part of making the pocket for the pacemaker because the anesthesiologist didn't believe I wake up during procedures! ( stuff nitemares are made of!)  Dr felt I wasn't on top of the pain. However I had blood in the lead causing shocking when pacemaker came on and had another surgery 4days later.. Dr never had this happen in his 30yrs of practice so soon! 

1 Comments

Shocking, just shocking

by AgentX86 - 2020-05-13 13:01:28

I don't believe anyone here has had exactly that problem.  We've had people who cal feel their pacing, rather like a nervous twitch, every heartbeat.  This is usually caused by the lead being next to the diaphragm and exciting it.  Usually the pacemaker can be adjusted to fix this problem.

As far as waking up during surgery, it's quite common to have the surgery without a general anesthetic at all.  Often there is a mild sedative to calm the patient down and sometimes they give a sedative to put you into what's called "twilight" and the sedative basicallt erases your memory.  I had mine done with nothing but locals.  It wasn't that bad, though there was pain when they made the pocket. 

If you like horror stories, I was once cardioverted when I was awake.  They thought I was out but I was just lying there chilled out (it was during an ablation) and ZAP!  I saw nothing but red and I put a curse on everyone withing shouting range.  ...and their decendents.

Yeah, hang around hospitals long enough and someone is going to screw something up.  These humans!

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I have had my pacer since 2005. At first it ruled my life. It took some time to calm down and make the mental adjustment. I had trouble sleeping and I worried a lot about pulling wires. Now I just live my life as I wish.