Is it common?

I had triple bypass surgery 6 months ago, after which I noticed a bump on my stomach, didn't think too much of it, other then it felt like a bb was under the skin, as time went on I thought maybe it's a piece of bone, one of the home nurses even said it might be a pimple? in time I thought she might me right, then it started looking more like a cyst, yesterday a wire poped out of it about 2" long freeked me out! I called my doc's and they said head to the ER get an x-ray done don't let anyone pull it... Like that was going to happen...
When the ER doc's saw the x-ray they said they'd never seen anything like it.. keep in mind I'm in the country no brights here.
When I saw the x-ray I think I went into shock... you can see the wire that is holding my strunum in place, it is as it should be, and that wire is much thicker then the wire sticking out of my stomach, but the shock was to follow the seemingly non ending ball of wire that is EVERYWHERE... its wrapped around my heart a couple of times it's coiled on the right side of my heart it's on the front of my heart you can see it going over to the back of the heart.. I should not be shocked this is par for my course.. If it could happen it will happen to me.
As I said I'm a country girl but if I had to take a stab at what this wire is I'd say it was part of that thing that was used to zap the heart back it looks like a lead wire a LONG lead wire.
My question:  is it common to leave that thing that zaps the heart in place after you've been closed up? to be pulled out later? and if it is common is there something that they do to check it to make sure they've gotten all of it?

[Archibald S Miller III, MD,FACS]

I am Dr. Arch s miller and am on the reconstructive forum. Your problem is much more common than you think. You probably have broken wires and the pacer wire may have gotten snagged by the sternal wires. If you are having pain and fell motion of your chest, you need a 3D CT scan to evaluate your sternum. If it is unhealed you will need to have this fixed. Go to the web site rapidsternalclosure.com and you can see the newest way to fix this problem. We have done over 500 patients with excellent results and are currently working with Duke University in a large patient study.Feel free to call Duke and talk to Dr. Scott Levin or to Tulsa and speak with me. We can help. I hope this helps you, respectfully,

                      arch s miller ms md facs