Pain after pacemaker

[Anisee]

Hi there I had a pacemaker fitted on March 1st and noticed that every time I washed or bathed My heart raced off quite significantly. After a while I noticed that it was when I washed under my left arm, checked my pulse once and it was at 160. this also happened when I turned round in bed.. I contacted the pacemaker team and the physiotherapist said that the pacemaker was adjusted to help my heart when under pressure. however, she was able to adjust this and let my heart do its own thing which is a lot better. however, since then I have now had problems with being able to lay down in bed. this can cause a lot of pain in my chest. Also AF and palpitations. I also get pain when I bend down, so ultimately I have to sleep sitting up on the settee. I also now get a lot of indigestion which causes palpitations.. has anybody else experienced this and how long do you think it might go on for. I am taking Lansoprazole. I am 79 years old and generally quite fit. I am okay if I keep upright and don’t get stressed.

Many thanks.

[22alfie]

This sounds awful 😔 for you. I hope things settle down soon and you get some rest.

[Hidden]

Dear Anisee

A warm welcome to the forum and your first post.

And what a first post it is, I am so sorry that you are suffering so and this is not right.

Hopefully the members on here can shed some light on your problem and offer both answers and support.

You have to remember that I am not medically trained but I have a Pacemaker fitted and although I had the usual healing pains I never suffered anywhere near as much as your post suggests.

You really need to push your Dr and get this sorted, as it may be you have a local infection in the pacemaker pocket.

If anything you should still feel an ache or two { understandable and expectable at this stage } but not this type of pain that you are experiencing .

I hope that you get it sorted soon

Take care and please keep us informed

[EMBoy]

Hi Anisee

Sorry you are have a hard time. I've had my pacemaker for about 31/2 years now and it has given me a new lease of life. I can identify with the occasional racing heart during the first few weeks. I don't know what was causing it, but I found it most frequent when brushing my teeth. I can also identify with the indigestion. Both of these symptoms went away agter a couple of months.

At three weeks, it is still early days, but you should not be feeling the level of pain that you are. It is important that you make sure you do not have an infection at the pacemaker site. If you have any swelling or if it feels unusually warm, please go to A&E.

[DennisTheChemist]

Hi. Just had an email re-your taking lansoprazole. I can't just see the relevant post, but if this helps: I've had acid indigestion for decades but in recent years it suddenly became unbearable. My doc prescribed 15mg lansoprazole. At first it worked very well, but after a few weeks it gave me nausea so my doc changed it to omeprazole. Same again, but took longer to cause nausea. Back to my doc and I'm now on omeprazole. Same tale again, only taking many more weeks before causing nausea. I'm not going back again, so instead I'm just taking one esomeprazole every 3 days. So far this works very well with me.