chest recovery

[MIKE69]

Does anyone know how long t takes for the chest to heal.
Wednesday will be one month and when breath deep I still get a snapping feeling with no pain but wondering how long until it goes away

 

[netmiff]

I think most people find 6 months to a year for full healing of the sternum. I am 18+ months out, and only feel it when I sneeze REALLY big ones.

 

[Cameron]

Mike,
Four weeks is still early - you need at least 8 weeks for the chest to be close to normal. At 4-5 weeks I still had pain breathing in when lying on my back and in that period of a week to ten days I had a lot of popping and snapping in my chest when I breathed in - quite disconcerting - but it all died down again around the six week mark. I was released to drive at six weeks, but you still will feel a bit sore if you drive a long way or yank the wheel too vigorously! At 8 weeks I felt I was solid and my stamina and wind were better than my pre-op condition. I am now at 13 weeks+ and am definitely better than I was for a long time pre-op and my chest feels 100% solid.
Give yourself some time and it will all come together - if you will pardon the pun!
Cameron

 

[acr]

I'm almost 6 weeks out, and chest feels pretty normal. However I'm not planning on lifting anything anytime soon, also sneezing is still absolutely no fun whatsoever.

 

[MIKE69]

chest recovery

Thaks for the response.
Cardio has informed me I can start driving again.
But I feel I should not do so that often.
I do have soreness in the chest area at night guess after being up all day
have not sneezed yet everytime I feel it I hold my nose.
Reading all these posts not looking foward to sneezing

 

[COLLEEN S]

6 wks out I was driving, so you are driving a little early, esp. for those twists and turns when backing out, etc. Sneezing is still hard for me at 8mos out on my 2nd OHS. Best wishes.

 

[BigOwl]

My surgeon told me I could drive myself to see him tomorrow (not quite three weeks post op), but I'm not drivin' anywhere until I'm off the narcs completely. I'm down to 3 or 4 a day/night, but still feel a tad detached.

My chest, on the other hand, seems to be healing much faster this time than it did after the CABG fourteen years ago. I'm thinking that has something to do with advances in surgical techniques, the fact that the surgeon himself did it this time (last time it was in a teaching hospital) and removed a lot of scar tissue as well as the old scar, and the fact that I know what to expect. Anyway I had a big whopping sneeze yesterday that didn't really hurt much at all.

I still have the pillow under the seatbelt strap when I'm a passenger, though. I have a feeling it'll be a while before I can wean myself from that thing!

 

[deano89]

i spoke to surgeon today and he said 6 - 8 weeks for the sternum to be solid!

 

[MIKE69]

chest recovery

I will be 4 weeks wednesday I will make a call to see the surgeon then
but I do get a popping feeling and can feel my heart beat when I breath deep

 

[palmaceae]

I am 7 weeks post op and I can feel my sternum if I cough still. If I over do it I get pain in my collar bones and if I touch certain places on my sternum I feel pain.

 

[abbanabba]

Hi Mike - 4 weeks is still very early, so it's not surprising to still be feeling some funky things. Of course, anything that concerns you should be mentioned to your cardio, but as has been stated already it will probably take at least a good 8-12 weeks before things are solid again.

Even though I felt physically much better around week 6, it was still another few weeks before I felt comfortable with certain things. One of the exercises in my physio class was laying on the ground, feet up on a fit-ball and raising the pelvis so my weight was on my upper back. I couldn't do that until about week 9-10 because things still felt very uncomfortable. And at 19 weeks I'm only just comfortable with laying on my stomach again. I might have been albe to do that sooner, but I didn't feel game to try.

As far as being able to breathe deeply or sneeze, it was about 6 weeks for me.

 

[MIKE69]

chest recovery

How much excecise are you doing now??

 

[Cooker]

Good rule of thumb is about 3 months for the sternum to heal ... about a year for full recovery ... at 4 weeks you are just starting to heal ... do your self a favor and don't rush things ... at four weeks the only exercise that you should be doing is walking and um, you know

 

[ccummins]

I'm at 6 weeks and I still hear some popping. After 5 weeks I was able to sleep on my side. Also at 5 weeks I stopped feeling a lot of pain when sneezing.

 

[ruthienc1]

At 6 weeks I was due to start rehab and I was still popping.....decided to wait until it resolved. By 8 weeks everything was fine and I was able to start. The rehab nurses seemed to think it would have been fine to begin with the popping going on, but it just plain made me nervous....afraid I'd do damage! It was so nice when it all settled down: yours will, too

 

[abbanabba]

How much excecise are you doing now??

I'm doing about 45min a day on the home gym - this includes about 5-10 minutes on the cross-trainer (warm-up/down), lifting between 5-30 pounds depending on the muscle group @ 3 sets of 10 reps doing chest, shoulders, upper & lower back, arms and legs, and I do 150 crunches (50 lower-mid abs, and 50 each side for obliques) on my ab-swing.

I'm still taking it fairly carefully and trying to buid my stamina up, but I've been building into this routine for a couple of weeks (this is mid week 3) and it's starting to get easier. I've been doing the above for about a week. I also couple this with a good 25-60min walk every other day - depending on how much time I have and the weather

I haven't been able to be this active for years - so I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now

 

[COLLEEN S]

I will be 4 weeks wednesday I will make a call to see the surgeon then
but I do get a popping feeling and can feel my heart beat when I breath deep

Mike, I think this is normal, as the inflammation and such takes time to go back to normal size. I have the same thing when I deep breathe.

 

[terodac]

At least a year, and don't try and pick up heavy things for awhile!