I know what the nasty pain is from a sternotomy after having mine severed completely. I'm also having some pain over my heart and I was wondering if it is possible to have pain where you AV was? Or alternatively, I was told by the surgeons that when they do the thoracotomy they have to cut open the pericardium surrounding the heart and it is never sewn closed and basically goes away eventually. Could I be having some pain from that? The pain I am talking about only comes during deep inhalation.
Heart pain?
- Thread starter canon4me
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JimH
Member
This sounds like Pericarditis. I am 14 weeks post valve surgery and was diagnosed with it 2 weeks ago. I've read that sometimes they call this Dresslers Syndrome after a open heart surgery. Having the pain on deep inhalation is a good clue. If you are sitting and lean far forward does it get better?
By the way my mitral repair and aortic replace was with Dr. Gillinov.
By the way my mitral repair and aortic replace was with Dr. Gillinov.
JimH
Member
They put me on 600mg motrin 3x/day for 2 weeks. It resolved the pain for the two weeks. However, I'm just off the motrin and the pain may be coming back (to soon to be sure). I exercise a lot and cardiologist said I could keep exercising once motrin kicked in. I'm not sure that was good advise but again to soon to tell.
From what I've read on pericarditis it occurs in ~ 20% of people after open heart surgery and there is a high level of recurrence. It seems to go away over time but some people seem to suffer with it for a while (eg. multiple recurrences over a year). If motrin doesn't work they go to a combination of motrin and colchicine. If that doesn't work then steroids. It all seems kind of unclear. Cleveland clinic has a pericarditis disease center and I wonder if it's worth going there if it doesn't clear up for me soon. Generally pericarditis can be caused by viral infection but I think being a few weeks post surgery is different from other other causes of pericarditis. I find it frustrating because otherwise I'm doing pretty well and I want to be done with this and go back to exercising harder. Of course if pain comes back in force I'm not going to be doing any exercise anyway.
The pain on deep inhalation is (I think) a clue for pericarditis. And if pain goes away when leaning far forward is another clue. Certainly you should discuss with your doc - this is just what I've learned. For me so far they haven't found any fluid buildup but it can get more serious if it isn't dealt with.
Take a look at this link :
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/departments-centers/pericardial-disease.aspx
Good luck. Let me know how it goes. I'll try to do the same.
From what I've read on pericarditis it occurs in ~ 20% of people after open heart surgery and there is a high level of recurrence. It seems to go away over time but some people seem to suffer with it for a while (eg. multiple recurrences over a year). If motrin doesn't work they go to a combination of motrin and colchicine. If that doesn't work then steroids. It all seems kind of unclear. Cleveland clinic has a pericarditis disease center and I wonder if it's worth going there if it doesn't clear up for me soon. Generally pericarditis can be caused by viral infection but I think being a few weeks post surgery is different from other other causes of pericarditis. I find it frustrating because otherwise I'm doing pretty well and I want to be done with this and go back to exercising harder. Of course if pain comes back in force I'm not going to be doing any exercise anyway.
The pain on deep inhalation is (I think) a clue for pericarditis. And if pain goes away when leaning far forward is another clue. Certainly you should discuss with your doc - this is just what I've learned. For me so far they haven't found any fluid buildup but it can get more serious if it isn't dealt with.
Take a look at this link :
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/heart/departments-centers/pericardial-disease.aspx
Good luck. Let me know how it goes. I'll try to do the same.
There is another possibility regarding pain on deep breathing. If you are just a couple of weeks post-op, it could be that your lungs are not yet fully inflating. Don't forget that they deflate your lungs while you are on the heart-lung machine during surgery. They do this to get extra room to work. Since the lungs are moist on the inside, sometimes they stick to themselves and do not fully inflate once you start breathing on your own again. I had pain on deep breathing after surgery and this was the diagnosis. I think they were able to see something on my chest X-ray to confirm that diagnosis. The treatment was ibuprofen, along with continued heavy use of my spirometer. After a few weeks, it all just cleared up.
Oh - They told me that most of the tissue that was cut and worked on during surgery (especially the heart) does not have pain-sensor nerves to cause post-op pain. Only the muscle and tendons, etc. have pain sensors (along, of course, with all of the skin and body parts closer to the surface).
Oh - They told me that most of the tissue that was cut and worked on during surgery (especially the heart) does not have pain-sensor nerves to cause post-op pain. Only the muscle and tendons, etc. have pain sensors (along, of course, with all of the skin and body parts closer to the surface).
pellicle
Professional Dingbat, Guru and Merkintologist
best wishes.
Thanks everybody! Home now but not out of the woods. Dr. Said most of the pericarditis is to blame for the Coumadin I was put on in Cleveland. He seems to have the arrythmias under control and has taken me off of Coumadin. He said he would like my body to absorb the fluid/blood combo around my heart if possible. If not, he will take me into a surgery room and withdraw some fluid under a local anesthesia.
