Chest and Shoulder Pain, 10 months post-op

[jag004]

I had AVR 10 months ago with a bovine valve with a Dacron graft. I went to sleep on Sunday night fine, and woke up Monday morning with chest and shoulder pain, and shortness of breath. Hand is also a little numb and painful. It continued straight thru into Tuesday, so I went to the ER. There I had a Chem 7, CBC, coags, troponin, d-dimer, ck, myoglobin, EKG, X-ray, and an echo. Everything came back looking perfect. That was 6 days ago, and I'm still having the same exact symptoms. The symptoms are continuous. They don't let up. I was thinking it was a heart attack. 6 days straight of left sided sharp chest and shoulder pain. Sometimes the pain radiates into the the left side of my lower neck also. It's worse when I inhale. I been taking Motrin n Aleve but no relief. I don't think the docs arent taking this too serious bc all the tests came back fine. They even speculated the possibilities that it could be a pinched nerve or muscle pull. But, I know how I feel, and I feel like this could be something cardiac related. Something's not right.

My questions are:
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be, so I can bring it upto my dr?
I took a nasty fall down the steps 14 days prior to all this, but forgot to tell dr. Could that be significant?
I also sleep w a CPAP machine. Could calibrations or pressures of the machine cause any problems like this?

Thanks.

 

[pellicle]

Hi there

it could be any number of things, however taking the complex out of the equation in favor of the simple answers first: it could be just muscular pain.

I had really tight muscles in all my back and neck for some time after post op (like nearly a half a year). Part of this was because of holding youself differently and not exersizing or stretchering in the ways I had been able to do pre-op.

By all means discuss this with your GP, but just keep in mind it could be muscular. I mean if you could be stuck in the position you were in during the OP for as long as you were during the op you may be really stiff for some time anyway.

Do you have any other symptoms? You know, something which would suggest its more than just muscular pain. Don't discount muscular pain. I worked on changing the wheel bearings on our car on the garage floor in my father-in-laws shed one winter ... The floor was concrete and it was -20C ... I was sore in the neck and shoulders for a month.

Make the appointment to discuss this with your Doc asap and try to think about it being bad stuff. Its probably not.

 

[Jkm7]

Your fall could be pertinent to how you are feeling.

I would suggest mentioning it to your doctor.
You may need an MRI to check for injury.
Hope you get this sorted out and they can get you back to feeling well.

Please let us know how you are doing.

 

[tom in MO]

For me, chest and shoulder pain with a slightly numb hand could mean I've slept wrong and pinched a nerve or have a cramped muscle in my neck, shoulders, wherever.

 

[epstns]

I've had a pinched nerve, but it was a lumbar nerve (lower back). Mine did not in any way involve shortness of breath. Could the shortness of breath be related to the body's "flinch" reaction to pain in muscles, or is the shortness of breath present even in the absence of pain?

 

[clay_from_nj]

Little too heavy on the incline bench presses?

 

[jag004]

Thanks for your responses. Its day 9 of this weird chest pain and shortness of breath. My doctor said the 3 main emergencies we needed to rule out were heart attack, pulmonary embolism, and aortic dissection. He said there were no signs of heart attack or PE, and the blood tests almost ruled them out completely. He also said that my aorta shouldnt be tearing in any way because its brand new as of 10 months ago. And that most people with aortic dissection know that something is awfully wrong right at that time....and not days n days later. The only way to check for that is a CT scan. It seems to me as if he doesnt want to write me to go for that CT scan. In his mind those big 3 situations are ruled out. So where im at now is an office visit 9 days from now to see him, and he is on vacation anyway.

Other symptoms I have is that I cant lie on my left side without there being very sharp chest and shoulder pain. Leaning forward or bending over forward to pick something up causes bad pain too. And, a pvc popping sort of beat every once in a while that seems pretty sharp and painful. But thats only about 15-25 per day.

Question: I still have a bunch of Lasix from post-op. Should I one a day in the case that there could be fluid building in my chest?

 

[clay_from_nj]

It could very well be something musculoskeletal, perhaps seemingly unrelated. After my wife had her gallbladder out, via scope, she had horrible, nearly crippling pain in her shoulder. In that case, she knew what it was and that it would pass soon because she had been warned. During the gallbladder removal, they inflate the abdomen with carbon dioxide, making a nice little tent to work in. When they're done, some of the CO2 remains to be absorbed by the body. It can irritate a major nerve that serves the diaphragm and the shoulder, hence the pain. (That's the way the doctor explained it.)