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Welcome

by Penguin - 2023-10-15 12:31:50

Welcome Al, 

Sorry to hear that your heart needed a pacemaker and that you're in pain right now. 

How many weeks post implant are you?  It's usual to be in a bit of pain for a week or so, but everyone heals differently. Some take a while longer and others are up and about and manage on an over the counter painkiller. Lots of people swear by ice (ice pack covered with a soft towel or similar) on the wound site to calm the inflammation.

Re: No one understands or can relate - yes, that can be tricky! I found plenty of people (mainly older than me) who understood heart disease and heart attacks, but electrical disturbances can draw some blank faces. 

A pacemaker implant is considered to be quite a minor operation - and physically it is! However, mentally, people can take time to adjust and get their head around it. The implant itself gets some getting used to and getting used to the idea of needing a device to keep you upright and healthy can be difficult. The mental side of things often takes the longest to adjust to - or at least that's what I found! 

I'm in my fifties too and on my second pacemaker. If you'd like to talk or ask questions please do. There are plenty of people here who will be happy to help. 

Best Wishes

Welcome aboard the boat of hope

by Lavender - 2023-10-15 13:40:39

Hi there 

It can be helpful if you fill in your bio with your pacemaker details.

I wonder if your shoulder is frozen from not using it too much? Hopefully if you had a sling, you know to ditch it. Use the arm just don't reach the pacemaker arm elbow higher than the shoulder. Not using it can cause shoulder problems. My arm was really helped by a licensed massage therapist. 
 

I felt alone too when I received my pacemaker two years+ ago. No one I could talk with about it who understood. I knew two men much older than I, who said they never noticed their pacemaker and don't think about it. That certainly wasn't my case then!🙃

Be patient with yourself. You are one of many many with a new battery powered heart!

chat

by Tracey_E - 2023-10-15 14:04:13

Hey! It looks like you were on a couple of hours ago but I will open a chat window while I take care of a few things. Chat is usually pretty dead here unless someone arranges a time to meet there. 

You are not alone!! I'm a few years older than you at 57 but have been paced since 1994. I never met anyone else like me until I found this site 10 years ago. It's nice having people who can relate. 

If you woke up with the pain, my guess is you slept funny and aggravated it. Have you tried icing? For me that helped better than advil or tylenol.

I always worry when I read shoulder-pain soon after a first PM implantation...

by crustyg - 2023-10-16 13:00:27

... so my question back to you is this: how many days post implant are you, and whereabouts (as exactly as you can describe it) is the shoulder pain?

There was a recent pop-quiz in the journals about shortness of breath soon after a PM implantation, which went on to mention the known complication rates (pretty low).

I decided not to post the link here as it might cause unnecessary anxiety for some viewers.

Shoulder and Elbow pain after PM Procedure

by Fonz54 - 2023-10-17 14:20:32

I had my pacemaker implanted on 10/5. About a day or so after the procedure started to get what feels like nerve pain that emanates from my left scapula down to the the top of my left Elbow. When I went to see my cardiologist last week for a follow-up after the procedure I told him about the pain and he said "Nothing that we did". It has been on and off since it first occurred and at times is completely gone. The worst was a day or two after the procdure it would wake me up at night. Waking me up at night has subsided, but the pain still comes and goes. Nothing really helps, not ice, not heat not meds with Lidocain nor Tylenol. I am going to give it another week and if it does not continue to improve I will go see an ortho doc. Details are I am a 69 year old male in fairtly good shape. Was diagnosed with AFIB and Sick Sinus Syndrome with Syncope in August. Had Medtronics Azure dual lead PM installed on 10/5. Appears that the PM has raised my heart rate to ~60+ bpm. AFIB load is about 80%. Cardiologist said if AFIB does not improve I will need to consider getting an ablation.