Back and Shoulder Muscle Pain

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gordy

Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2005
Messages
24
Hi, I was wondering if anyone has had a problem like this. I had my surgery 4 weeks ago and seem to be healing pretty well. In the last 8-10 days I noticed some swelling on my sturnum above my incision. I started to experience a little pain in the sturnum area and just figured this was part of the healing process. The last 3 nights I have woke up with muscle tightness running from my neck, to my shoulders, down to my upper back. These muscles are very tight and sore. A few Tylenol seems to help a little; but this is really starting to interrupt my sleep. I was wondering if muscle relaxers or any other drug will help this condition. Thanks for your input.
 
Sounds like you're building up fluid behind the incision. There may or may not also be an infection involved, so you need to bring it to the doctor.

It's likely topical, not involving the area inside your sternum, but it certainly sounds like it should be checked and drained.

Go see the doctor now. It will feel much better with the pressure off.

Best wishes,
 
Gordy,
Have it looked at right away. Any swelling and new pain at this point needs to be investigated.
Not to scare you but I had some slight swelling after my last surgery (about 2 months post-op). A couple of days later an open sore appear on my scar. I went to the surgeon and he did some "cleaning" of the area. Six months later I was still having problems and went to see a plastic surgeon as my scar looked awful. This surgeon went in and found massive amounts of infection so deep he had to create a hernia to get all the infection cleaned up from the muscle.
It was determined I was reacting to the internal sutures that had been used during OHS.
I ended up with the OHS scar reopened the entire length and a recovery of about a month. I was really lucky I did not die from the infection.
Anyway - have it checked.
 
Agreement with the others. Call right now.

one other thing. Have you ever seen where they put your elbows during heart surgery? Many have complained of shoulder and back tightness, soreness, pain after coming home after their surgery. We are placed in unreal position for the surgery and the strain causes soreness later on.

But for swelling, etc, look into it. They tell us when we leave 'if you have ANY questions, please call us'. Your turn.
 
By all means have that swelling looked at.

The neck back shoulder pain--Well it should be there, they only had your shoulder blades pinned together and your chest spread apart. Muscles were just slightly over extended. The best relief is to have someone massage you a couple times a day. Nothing else seems to help it.
 
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