Pain, nausea, and clas after heart cath

[Ishy20]

I had a heart cath 5 days ago because of chest pain and abnormal stress test and ct scan. Since then I have been nauseated, sometimes vomiting, have pain in my groin that hurts whenever I move around or walk, have a couple of lumps near the incision site and extreme tenderness when any pressure is on that area. Today the pain was even worse and I have started to have chills along with head sweating and clammy skin. I have some prescription pain meds for my back i have had to take.  I'm not happy with my dr because they don't seem to care. I had low potassium when I went in for the cath such that they had to postpone it by 6 hours while they gave me potassium supplements. They did not schedule any follow up potassium test so I asked to have one two days after the cath because I didn't feel well. The dr office called me the next day and I told them about the nausea and vomiting and feeling poorly and their response was that the potassium test was low so eat a banana. I don't know what to do at this point and yet I don't want to waste an ER expense if unnecessary. Please, any suggestions?

[Ishy20]

Thanks. I ended up being admitted to the hospital for hypokalemia a little bit ago. It's now 11 days since cath and still have pretty severe pain. I've mentioned the pain and nausea to nurse but it's shift change so waiting to see.  

[CCFHeartMD16]

It is not uncommon to have some mild tenderness where the insertion of the catheter was located, up to a week or so after the test. However, if you are having extreme pain as you note, then this may be beyond the expected post-procedural pain. Further, lumps in the area may reflect a hematoma (common post-procedure issue of minimal long-term consequence, resolves in 1-2 weeks) but should not be growing in size days after the procedure. Fever as well is concerning that you may have an infection, which is a rare, but possible complication of the procedure.

You should contact your physician's office if you are still having this issue, and if you are not seen in clinic or feel brushed off, you should consider either seeing another cardiologist or a visit (albeit unfortunate) to the ED for evaluation of the groin to rule out concerning complications such as infection, growing hematoma, etc.