ICD IMPLANT

[joanna_s]

I am a 26 year old female and had an icd implant 12 weeks ago, I am still fiding the area where it is fitted rather tender and occasionally have pain. is this normal for others to experiance the tenderness?

What was the recovery time and back to work time for others? I was as cabin crew and the heavy lifting and pulling of the doors is worrying me?

What was the recovery time for the battery replacement?

[Pamz]

The area will be tender for a several months, mine still itches at times (it was implanted the end of June,2010).  Your doctor should tell you how long before you can pull the doors shut but I can say that you are not supposed to do any pulling or lifting with your left arm for a minimum of 6 weeks because you don't want to pull the leads out.  Those doors are heavy so I'd give it a lot of time, maybe another 3 or 4 weeks.  Everybody heals differently but I healed fast.  I had surgery on Friday and went back to work on Monday but I am at a desk.  I started walking fast at 1 week, jogging at 3 weeks, mowing at 4 weeks carefully trying not to put much pressure on my left side and was rocking the zipper ride at the fair as hard as I could at 5 weeks but then I was worried I had done some damage because a few days later while jogging with my push mower, my ICD fired 6 times but, it turned out the leads were fine, they just had it firing at too low of a heart rate for me.  My daughter had her's implanted the beginning of October and she was still a little sore at Christmas, so it just takes a little time.

If you feel a heavy pressure, like you can't breath without pain or like you are having a heart attack, then you need to call your doctor because that could be periocarditis and it can be caused by a lead moving or irritating a area.  That happened to my daughter and they had to go back in the next day.

[bbxx]

I see you are still waiting for an answer. I am not sure how many people on here have and ICD, I do know there is one person but she doesnt appear to be on right now. You can try to ask in the heart disease forum while you wait just incase someone there can help you, but hopefully someone here will have your answers.