After a fall

Hi, guess I'm posting this because I've been thinking about it enough that I'm a litte anxious. I tripped and fell the other day, landed hard on my left knee then rolled to my left side (BTW my PM is on my left side above my breast, implated on 10/30/07 so I'm just under 5 months postop) Right after the fall I felt HORRIBLE, aside from the pain in my knee, I felt very light headed, short of breath and was getting a thumping in my chest, kind of like the beat I get when the PM is turned off (I have 3rd degree block, paced 2% in the upper and 100% in the lower) The thumping and lightheadedness only lasted a few minutes but I felt a bit off for the rest of the day. I saw my cardio the next day, he took and EKG and said everything looked OK and let him know if it happened again - it hasn't and if I can learn to keep on my feet I hope it never does :-)
I guess my question is, what could have cause the thumping, my first fear what a malfuntion of the PM or the leads jarring loose, but since I went back to normal so quickly, and from the results of the EKG, I guess that's ruled out.

2 Comments

Did you ask your doc?

by Swedeheart - 2008-03-28 01:03:03

Hello,

Glad you saw your cardio right away. Did he also take a xray to be sure your leads are in place correctly? I don't know if he needed to, he might have been able to "see" all he needed from either a EKG or interrogation.

You might ask him (or call his nurse if he has one you can get ahold of...) if the fall caused an adrenaline rush. Sometimes that does weird things to our heart for a bit... I am only guessing here and am not a health care provider, but it could be my guess.

If you are not having any additional symptoms and are feeling okay you likely can stop worrying. If you begin to feel "weird" or "funny" again you might keep notes as to activity, bloodpressure, etc. and then see your cardio again.

Good luck.

Falling

by bini - 2008-03-28 09:03:37

If your Dr. didn't see anything I asume he is right and nothing happened bc of the PM.
I suffer from fainting episodes almost daily and fall hard alot. I so far have had no problems from the PM when I fall. I can feel my heart beat but it's bc my PM is supposed to kick in when I am fainting so it is normal for me.
After all the falls I have had...it makes me realize how hearty these PM's can be. I wouldn't worry about the symtoms, hopefully they were caused by the stress from the fall and not from the PM.

Christine

You know you're wired when...

Your favorite poem is “Ode to a Cardiac Node”.

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