How long for the intense pain of an ICD install to ease?

[Bruce67]

Had my ICD installation this morning. Oh my days, it feels like I have a spear through my shoulder ( or how I imagine that would feel anyway!) Consultant said worst pain lasts a week, please tell me he exaggerated, and it won't be too bad in a few days 🤔

[RufusScamp]

I found I needed a few paracetamol for the first couple of days. It felt much better after about three days.

[Deejay62]

Hi, sorry to hear you’re in so much pain. I can’t remember it being that bad but I do take co codomal for other pain so maybe that’s why. Take some pain killers if it gets too much. Paracetamol won’t harm.

[Drawforaliving]

Hi Bruce, I found the general awake pain reduced significantly after 5 days. The sleeping pain went on for a bit for me I'm afraid, maybe 3 weeks until it settled right down. I didn't really bother with pain relief though so probably dose yourself up with whatever your condition allows.

[Driver11]

You should be pain free very quickly Do as the doctors say and sleep on your back or right side

Don't lift anything and you'll be fine

[EmmJayTea]

Hi Bruce

Sorry to hear that you are experiencing a lot of pain with this. My more-or-less constant pain started to ease after about 4 days across the whole swollen area. Mine was worse at night, and I felt like I'd been in a fight. However, it was manageable if I took a dose of co-codamol. I didn't need anything stronger, but I realise that everyone is different. I found the pain more tiring than anything. Over the next 4-5 weeks it eased to a dull but widespread ache across the ICD site.

On occasional days, I experienced stabbing pains as the nerve endings started to grow back, but this was treatable with ad-hod dosing of co-codamol/codeine. The particularly painful days usually followed on from me beginning to introduce more movement into my left arm.

I'm 8 months on now and I only get pains if I've over-moved my left arm (if that makes sense!). I'm trying to be careful, but I'm left-handed, and I sometimes get over-enthusiastic in the kitchen when chopping/stirring/manually whisking things. I've only got myself to blame for this. 😄

You might want to think about car set-belts over the coming weeks and months. This is something that aggravated my pain around the incision site. I fiddled around with the passenger seat settings and found that reclining it more than usual helped take pressure off the wound site. I also used a rolled up towel or wore a thicker coat to cushion the wound area and found that this helped. Mind you, I may not be representative of most as I had a wound abrasion complication which had to be revised; some of the internal sutures weren't tight enough. I'm much better now.

Remember, you've been battered around a bit by the surgery and it is very early days. This is the worse period and it will get better from hereon. It will take a bit of time for your body to heal and it will, so long as you follow the advice about not lifting heavy things or raising your arm too much whilst everything knits back together. I hope that you recovery goes well and that you start to feel more comfortable soon.

Above all, you now have a life-saving device fitted. I reconciled my most painful days by reminding myself that I had narrowly escaped cardiac arrest. The pain seemed a relatively small price to pay for a) being alive and b) having my own onboard life-saving device.

Good luck and take care.

[Alixia in reply to EmmJayTea]

I had my ICD placed under the muscle, and the pain was much worse than what I was led to believe it would be. I took full dose paracetamol and ibuprofen religiously for the first 2 weeks and used the Headspace app to help me sleep. It has sleepcasts especially for pain, I found they really worked. Don’t be afraid to move the shoulder, as it may become frozen if you keep it too still and that will only add to the pain.

[CrofterG]

I didn't really have much pain with mine few paracetamol over a couple of days and that was it

[polenta]

For me every day it lessened and within a week it wasnt bad at all, just try to take tylenol on a regular basis to stay ahead of the pain for a few days.

[Bruce67]

Thanks for your replies everyone. I have seen 111 out of hours doctor and been prescribed low dose of Oramorph - sounds drastic but if it kills off the pain I will be happy! 🤞🏻 It only last few days before settling to a tolerable level.