Hurts to Breathe in Deeply and Feeling Tired

[tigerlily]

I have another thread running so I hope I'm not asking too much of the forum right now.

The last couple of days I've barely made it home from work. I just went back last week. When I've gotten home I've taken 2 hour naps and I'm more than ready to go to bed at the regular time. Today I was so tired that I had to ask my husband to come home from work early so that he could pick up our son from school. Driving home (30 minute commute) I felt like it was a struggle to stay alert and focused on the road. I felt sort of like I was on drugs that make you woozy but I haven't changed anything about my meds.

I'm nine weeks post-op now and I'm wondering about some of my symptoms. I still get breathless on the telephone. Not when the calls are short but for more extensive talks. I've never heard of anyone complaining of this on the forum. I'm also feeling pain on the left side of my chest somewhere when I take a deep breath. You know how hard it can be to know exactly where pain is coming from. I haven't had this problem before. I pulled a muscle in my left shoulder and the pain may be related to that.

I took a mile walk tonight and I did pretty well with that. Maybe I'm over reacting or just over doing it. Maybe I need to meditate or take a tranquilizer and see how much of this goes away. Thank you all for your patience with me. I'm mostly concerned with the fatigue and breathless thing.

 

[Karlynn]

Sounds like you need to limit your time at work and not try full-time. I would discuss your description with your doctor. Everyone is so different. Some people can return to work full time at 6 weeks out with no problem, others have to wean themselves back in to work. Take care of yourself. If you feel you are cummulatively getting more tired and worn out, it's time to put the brakes on.

 

[MikeHeim]

Sounds pretty similar to how I was at nine weeks. I still had pain when taking deep breaths, in fact, I think I started a thread about it as well. I still have some pain at five months, but that's another story. I went back to work at ten weeks, but the first week I apparently looked terrible. I felt terrible as well, so at least it was pretty much in line. I usually felt pretty good until mid-afternoon, and suddenly I would be drained. I took a nap when I got home almost every single day. If I recall correctly, the breathlessness came and went. There were some weeks where I would have issues, and others where I felt completely recovered.

Anyways, you sound like you're doing pretty good. As long as you can keep walking (like it sounds you are), you should notice yourself feeling better and better in no time.

 

[Barbara Stewart]

Hurts to breathe

Hurts to breathe

I want to echo Karlynn. The fact that you are getting more and more tired, not less, is a sign you're doing too much.

Barbara

 

[geebee]

I think you should consider taking a few days off to see if you are less tired. If you rest and still have these issues, you could have some fluid build-up that would need to be treated. If the symptoms go away with a few days off, you will know that you are merely doing too much, too fast. It can be frustrating, I know, but your body is talking to you. You just have to figure out what it is saying.

 

[catwoman]

Have you called your cardiologist? I would go in and have him/her check me out. Better to waste $20, $30, $50 or whatever on a co-pay and find ou you're OK than to find yourself hospitalized because you ignored your body talking to you. ("When in doubt, check it out!")

I went back (at 7 weeks post-op), working 20 hours/week for 4 weeks, then full-time at 11 weeks post-op. Even then, I was exhausted at times. In fact, I had some bouts of severe fatigue up to 8-9 months post-op. Granted, sometimes it was because of unavoidable travel complications, not allowing me enough sleep at night.

 

[Georgia]

If working full time is putting you in danger, you simply must cut your hours. At 9 weeks out you're not even close to being recovered; if you have trouble driving home you need to cut back.

Please take care of yourself; this includes recognizing your limitations and acting on the warnings your body is delivering. You certainly don't want to fall asleep at the wheel or make an error in judgment on the road.

 

[Mary]

If you're feeling pain when you take a deep breath, then you should contact your cardiologist to rule out either a pleural effusion or a pericardial effusion.
I had the same symptom, and as it turned out, I had fluid build up in both my lungs and around my heart.

 

[perkicar]

I had similar symptoms about the same time, but also had a resolving pericardial effusion and pleural effusion. I would call your cardiologist and let them know what you're experiencing....they may want to watch and wait or they may want you to come in so they can take a listen and maybe do an echo or chest xray. Mine went away on it's own, but I did take it easy for a few days after I got it. I was supposed to go dog racing that weekend but decided the smart thing would be to stay home!!
I too went back to work part time, then went back to full time after a month of part time. My co-workers commented on how breathless I sounded when I first came back--it was alot of walking that I wasn't quite used to.
Take care of yourself! the old adage, listen to your body. It's really easy to assume that whatever you're feeling is just a left over from surgery, but that's not always the case.

 

[tigerlily]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I'm actually working part time (about 25 hours) and I feel sort of wimpy admitting that. But on the other hand, when I think about all that I've been doing after work recently, I realize I've been as busy as a full time person if not more so. I will definitely slow down.

Today was a tough day. I had a bad night last night and decided to call my cardiologist's office first thing this morning. I explained how fatigued and out of it I'd been feeling and also that I had pain in my left chest when I breathed deeply. Also that my left shoulder had been killing me but that I thought that was the result of a pulled muscle (first yoga class Monday night). My cardio's assistant said I either needed to see my primary care doc or go to the ER. I don't know why she didn't tell me to come to my cardio's office.

Anyway, I chose to see my primary doc. She did an EKG, blood work and listened to my heart and lungs. The blood work will check for anemia and infection. From what she could tell without the blood work, she thought I checked out OK. She thinks that the Metopolol might be the culprit behind the fatigue problem and she thought the breathing problem is coming from my sternum or more likely where they cut my muscles and manipulated my chest. She cut my Metopolol dose in half and also suggested I wait a couple more weeks before I do anymore yoga.

Now it's wait and see if I begin to feel better. I was so scared last night. At one point I woke up soaking wet. At another I woke in so much pain from the shoulder and chest area. I told my doctor about all of this.

Georgia, when are you recovered? Is it a you are when you are sort of thing? Thanks again everyone.

 

[Georgia]

A lot of recovery depends on how deconditioned you were when you had ohs. I felt a LOT better at about 3 months out (didn't start work until 12 weeks). I think I could say all was well at 12 mos. My heart and ef didn't go back to normal until that time, but I didn't have symptoms after surgery even tho my ef was still 45 after 4 mos. and my lv was still enlarged. I guess my heart was just happy about the new valve.

I think the whole trick to recovery is not fighting what your body's telling you. If you're tired and need a nap, take a nap. As we've said many times on here, you have NO energy reserves after ohs; when your energy is gone, that's it. You just have to sit down and rest.

Probably the most important component of recovery is exercise; you have to make either cardiac rehab or other regular aerobic exercise a top priority. After all, if you don't recover, you'll be useless in other activities.

Some people recover fast and some slow. I suspect those who are most impatient are the lucky ones who were asymptomatic prior to surgery and really feel much more poorly post-surgery than they did prior to it. I was very ill, and consequently felt a lot better within a month than I had in years.

It'll come, tigerlily; you just have to go with the flow. Hang in there.