-
Pain after heart cath
I had a heart cath done through my femoral artery two weeks ago. I have had pain and discomfort since the procedure but the last two days I have been in pretty sever pain. It hurts badly when I walk but is virtually painless when sitting or lying down. Ice and a hot bath has not helped. Only painkillers give me relief. Has anybody had this complication? If so, what was it and how did you treat it?
-
5 Replies
-
Hi Terry,
I had awful pain at my site. They had me through the neck during one cath and groin with another. Where was your insertion site? The neck I used a lot of heat and ice and also had to take pain medication for about a week because I could barely lift my head off the pillow. I would ask the doctor, maybe they noticed some resistance in the vessel and had to push a little. For me, my arteries and vessels are smaller so they were bruised and very sore all the way down where the cath was. For my groin I also rested and used heat and ice. I remember having huge bruises all the way down from my groin to my inner thigh almost to the knee. If it is really bothering you, I would suggest bringing up this type of pain to the doctor just to be on the safe side. I’m sure they would check for something like a blood clot or make sure your blood levels are okay and nothing is off that would indicate a clot. Better to always be on the side of caution! -
Terry, how are you feeling?? I hope you’re fully recovered! Did you find out why you were hurting so bad? I have my heart cath on the 27th so I want to be prepared! I live with chronic pain from Ankylosing Spondylitis & wonder if I should ask for additional pain meds for recovery, especially if they require you to lay on your back! I can’t lay on my back at all due to spine surgeries and chronic inflammation.
-
Hi Erin,
As someone with back pain myself from a form of spina bifida that I was born with, I can say that it definitely does leave you pretty sore especially lower back from having to lay still for a bit. Sometimes the heart caths take no more than a 2 hours and it’s not as bad especially if they give you medication beforehand or put you in a “sleepy state”. Do you know if they plan on giving medications while doing the cath or will you be completely awake and alert? I would suggest calling to see what their plan is as far as pain management goes while it’s happening and if they are going to use any type of sedation.
-
-
I’m pretty certain they will give me the sedation meds and he learned last week that I have a very high tolerance to them while trying to sedate me for the transesophageal echo. They gave me the meds and we were all staring at each other when I should have been out, I said “told ya!” It was pretty funny! He was also my Dad’s cardiologist & he put my dad to sleep for this although my dad remembered them putting the catheter in & it hurting really bad. They do call me the day before so I’ll make sure to remind them about my severe back pain & muscle spasms it’ll cause by laying on it. Thanks again, you’re amazing!!
-
You’re doing all the right things, Erin! I’m glad you are so on top of your health needs. Remember that you know your body best so if it uncomfortable for you, they have all the right meds to help you with that! It takes me awhile for the sedation to kick in too! Once they even said to me “you were still not going down without a fight and we gave you enough meds to knock out a 300 lb male ! hahaha! I guess when my body resists it resists hard!
-
Log in to reply.