How to Know If Leads Are All in Place

[HCMinNorCal]

My husband had his ICD surgery a little over 3 weeks ago. He returned to work a week and a half ago on light duty. He has his device check in a couple more weeks. He thinks that everything feels fine, but would someone know if their leads were out of place? Would you feel something off or would you not even know until they checked your device?

[DEChengst]

Re: How to Know If Leads Are All in Place

I don't think you would feel that. An ICD does run a regular self test though. Checking out the leads is one of the things that's tested for. If the ICD finds a problem it will depend on the model what happens next. Some will vibrate, others will sound an alarm and still others will upload a notification through their remote monitoring system.

Personally I really like the home monitoring system. It reported two events where the ICD started to prepare to give a shock because it thought I was having a dangerous arrythmia. After review the ECG strip the specialist decided a bad ventricular lead was the cause of excessive noise being seen as my the ECG. Shock was aborted as the noise went away in time. In my opinion home monitoring saved me from inappropriate shock as the lead probably would have deteriorated further over time.

If you like the idea of being monitored all the time call the specialist and ask if your hubby's ICD supports this.

[Cynaburst]

Re: How to Know If Leads Are All in Place

You would have no idea until the device is interrogated.

[Tisha]

Re: How to Know If Leads Are All in Place

I do know that when my mother had her second pacemaker put in (not ICD) the lead was not placed right and she awoke from semi sedation crying out in pain, the nurses called the dr in, he did some adjusting and came out and told us the lead was not in the right place and the mini shocks it was giving her trying to pace her was what was causing the pain, she was pacemaker dependent at all time. I don't know how adjusting it caused the pain to stop since she is always being paced but it did. So I am guessing that if it is to wrong you might know it like she did.