isn't that the best? while at our fil's our cousin took my dd and her kids to a local swapmeet...they had lady there who was making American girl doll clothes for half the cost of the "real deal"....

Pacemaker implantation is one of the easier cardiac procedures. You will have an incision about 2" in your upper left chest. This incision is where your pacemaker will be placed through to reside under the skin. Before the pacemaker is inserted, they will thread the lead(s) through a vein into your heart and connect the other end(s) to your pacemaker. The lead(s) are what conduct the electrical stimulation from the pacemaker to your heart muscles causing the heart to constrict as frequently as will be determined by your electrophysiologist. The rate will be set to create an adequate frequency of blood flow through your heart/lungs and to return the freshly oxygenated blood back throughout your body. Sorry to tell you, but you can't grab your chainsaw and go cut wood for the winter or go weld up new pipe corner fence posts. I'm sure you had that on your list to do first thing next week, didn't you! Those are usually the only long term restrictions you will have. You will feel so much better and should not be doing any more "face-plants" when you are out and about. It won't take but a short while until you notice that some of your energy that slipped out the door when you weren't looking has returned to you!! You will do good and we will all be expecting to hear from you shortly. Mary ETA: Hope the details don't upset you, but I always, always educated my patients in CCU/MICU so there were no misunderstandings of what the surgery would entail and what their pacemaker would do for them. Will be thinking of you.

I am glad you are home and doing better. The pain will go away, and you will feel like a new woman! JoAnn_Fla, I know many people that after the surgery site has healed have no pain from the pacemaker itself. My mom was thin and bony in that area, and complained about it hurting for years after it was put in. But it might also have been something that her mind grabbed hold of to complain about. She has alzheimer's and looking back, it started before she had it put in, and with her, it has been a litany of complaints, continuously. That is just the way the desease has worked on her. Now, she can't even complain. She is sleeping almost continuously, and not eating or drinking, except for tiny tiny amounts. We won't have her much longer. Having said all that about mom, I think that it's possible that the device might be too big for a small person, and cause some pain, but I don't know. I'm not sure how long ago mom's was put in, but at least 5 years ago. They are probably improved so much by now, and made smaller, that it wouldn't be a problem.

Thanks everyone. It has been a wild 2 days. My kids have kept me hopping.. they love to celebrate. Great kids!! I had trouble getting on here for a couple days!! Again thank you...