left arm pain

[Laurie]

I just had an AICD placed in April.  I am developing left arm pain that radiates to my thumb.  It can be quite painful.  My last three fingers are numb and tingly too especially if I lay on my left side or on an angle towards the left.  Could the device be putting pressure on the nerves in my arm?  What can be done about it?  The pain can be excruciating.  
Thank you!

[CCF CARDIO MD - DLB]

It might be worthwhile to see a neurologist, who could perform testing to see if their is any compression of nerves being caused by the device, though this would be unusual. However, if it were the case, the device could be moved over to the right side.

[Mickenzie]

I'm sorry to post this reply here. I am responding to a post made on Dec.1,1999 titled "Pacemaker Nightmare" I couldn't seem to locate it on this page. I think I may know what is going on with your pacemaker and the anti-theft devices. Since your lead is uni-polar, it is most likely picking up outside electricle signals from the devices,causing it to go into noise reversion. This means that it paces at the set lower limit until no further noise is detected. So don't worry about it actually harming you, it won't pace below the lower limit.(it may have appeared to have inhibited pulse output on the event monitor if your own heart rate was faster than the set lower limit.) I am 17, and I have and epicardial pacer. My pacemaker goes into noise reversion when I touch my shower handles, a metal pan on the stove, the water faucet outside, or go near pool lights, and so on... My doctors have given the problem plenty of attention and still do not know why my pacemaker does this.  They said that it was the first time they have ever seen anything like it. I hope this helps you. You can e-mail me at ***@****.