longing to be wrong

A little over 3 years ago I was implanted with a biventricular pacer / ICD - one of the leads was among those recalled by Medtronics. Last Halloween my defibrillator fired unncessarily - and it turned out the lead had fractured. It was replaced almost exactly a year ago.(By a different doctor than the one who did the original surgery - primarily because I have moved across the state from doc #1 -) Within two weeks I was in horrific pain - and a trip to the cardiologist showed the new lead was not working. I posted here around that time - and am grateful for the wise advise - which I followed. I got a new doc (doc #3 ) - who found the replaced lead was located incorrectly to begin with - he moved it - and since that last surgery - I have been doing well. This past weekend I realized I have been having episodes of shortness of breath (over the past few weeks ) - and rapid (not crazy - but 125-135) pulse. and - the pain from last year - albeit a comparitively very mild, very intermittent - form of it - is back. After all this time is there any possibility a lead could shift? I have a pacer appt. in 3 weeks and I can’t recall another time in my entire life when I wanted so much to hear that I am simply being paranoid........any insight would be most appreciated - PD


1 Comments

Lead Problems

by ElectricFrank - 2010-11-05 01:11:35

I don't know if it has any bearing on your lead problems, but when I was heading into surgery for my original pacemaker, the cardiologist told me that he expected to have problems finding a reliable location in my heart wall to attach the leads. This was based on my chlorestoral levels etc. and didn't turn out to be true.

What I am thinking is that you may have some physiological issues in your heart (maybe the reason for the biventricular pacer / ICD) that is causing the lead problems. I would talk over your concerns with the doc and let him know you would like to know his thoughts about what is happening.

best,

frank

You know you're wired when...

You always have something close to your heart.

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