Left arm painful after PM implant?

[Ava68]

I had a PM implant end of January this year. I have quite painful left arm restricting after effects. Feels like a trapped nerve. I mentioned to my consultant a while ago and he mentioned narrowing of the venous vein common after a implant and that if it continued to get back to them. I don’t really want to bother them with everything going on but wondered if anyone else had similar post implant symptoms and if I can expect it to go away in time on it’s own and if there is anything I can do to aid it/relieve it? I am not sure there is anything my consultant could do about it anyway?

Anyone who has had something similar it would be lovely to hear from you.

Stay safe everyone. Keep wishing for COVID rainbows and sending virtual hugs to everyone on this forum x

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[bantam12]

Yes I have arm and shoulder pain, this morning it's really playing up. I had my pm mid Feb and it was much more painful than I expected, a very brutal procedure ! my husband never had any problems after his pm was put in.

I should be having a pacing check today but it's been postponed for at least 4 months which I'm not happy about, I know the Cardiology department are still working and the docs are seeing patients, so I think the pacing team should at least be checking people with new pm's.

I did tell the pacing tech I was having problems when she called me yesterday but she just said see your GP, fat lot of good that would be !!

My pm is very near the point my shoulder moves so any forward arm movement makes it catch and is painful so driving is difficult ☹️ I'm also quite breathless but seems I'll have to live with it for however many months it takes to get an appt !

[Ava68 in reply to bantam12]

Hi there

Sorry to hear that you are in pain too. Yes I was also not prepared for the after pain or intrusiveness of the implant but I guess lots of implants are more like your husband’s experience. I did manage to have my first check up and so it’s really unfortunate that you have had your postponed to give you some reassurance. Do you have a heart monitor to show you your resting rate etc. Perhaps there is an app that you could download to a phone? That could give you reassurance that it is doing what it meant to be doing?

Re’ the frontal pain and breathlessness I did have that too. It took until about 5 weeks for me to get to a point where I wasn’t experiencing any symptoms and only a couple of weeks ago (so about 7 weeks) before the device really settled down under my collar bone. Now it does feel “part” of me as opposed to a feeling of sitting on my body so that pulling sensation has gone now. However as you I still have an inclination to not use my arm albeit I do but it’s excruciating at times.

Hopefully someone will reply with some positive experience to give us both something to hang onto.

The important thing is you got your device fitted before this lockdown happened. Perhaps that is something to help you not worry about your breathlessness? Take care. Stress is known to lower your immune system and we all need good levels of immunity more than ever now.

I hope that helps a bit I am always nervous replying by writing in case I inadvertently upset someone which I would never mean to do.

Stay safe x

[bantam12 in reply to Ava68]

I had to go back day after it was put in for a pacing check and should have had the next one at 4 weeks but there weren't any appts so I'll just have to hope it's set right ! I'm also on Bisoprolol so rate is down to about 60 which is better and I've only had a few pauses and I presume the pm has kicked in as they were shorter than before although I was still aware of it happening.

Interesting that you were getting similar symptoms and they resolved at around 7 weeks, I'm not quite there yet so fingers crossed 🤞

I'm still very aware of it being there, kind of feels there isn't room for it but hopefully it will get better, I'm certainly more confident knowing it's there and doing what it should.

I am going to try and use that arm more and maybe that will help, I think the muscle is still in shock and complaining about the trauma !!!

Good luck with your problems, at least we know we aren't alone with this 😊