Pain Left Chest Muscle going on 10 days

[action21]

I'm almost 5 weeks post op from Mitravalve Repair and stent. 10 days ago I started experiencing severe pain on my left breast. I thought I might have lifted something too heavy so I kinda blew it off. I saw my Primary Care Physician and he gave me anti inflammatory cream and did an EKG. EKG was fine but lotion did nothing. On day 7 after letting my cardio rehab people know about this they got an order for an Echo and that showed no build up of fluid around the heart. Came back to cardio on Monday with pain even worse and they told me no PT until I find out what the pain is.

Has anyone else gone thru this? Can you offer some advice? Right now I'm almost at the point of going to ER to get answers. I've got calls in to my surgeon and my cardiologist but no return calls yet.

 

[bigsidster]

I am 1 month post op for an Aortic valve replacement and double bypass.I too have pretty bad pain under the left breast that i did not notice the first 2 weeks post op.My pain I believe is coming from the exploring they did to fish a vein out for bypass.My whole left breast area is numb and very painful and you can see that is still a bit swollen.When they start cutting muscle it can take a long time to heal.Good luck.

 

[Mentu]

During my 2nd month after my AVR, both sides my chest became hypersensitive. Everything touching it felt like barbed wire or sharkskin. Strangely, the incision itself was not painful but rather the areas especially on each side of the center out to the nipples. My family doctor explained that as healing continues, the brain can have difficulty reading signals from the chest muscles. Fortunately, as time passes, this decreases and eventually disappears. Mine was a problem for about 6 weeks. If your problem is somewhat similar, desensitization routines seemed to help. This involved rubbing the painful areas with a variety of different textures at least a couple times a day for 20 minutes. Once the problem faded, it did not return.

Larry

 

[scott.eitman]

Yep. I had/have this problem on my right side. There is a lot of healing going on in our bodies. I actually noticed that I could scratch one side and the other reacted in pain.

More recently, I did some home remodeling Sat. and was amazed at the effect it had on me on Sun. And I am almost 5 months post-op.

 

[Jenayah]

I am now 8 weeks post OHS valve replacement and only just beginning to have days where there is little pain, in the first 6 weeks everything seemed to hurt but not the same time! I would have my left ribs hurting then it would change to my right side, then I would get a stabbing pain in my back which I thought was my lung (but the doc said it was the muscle connecting to the lungs had become strained because of my breathing). The doctors dont tell you prior to surgery just how much pain and more to the point that its not just going to be your sternum that hurts its basically from your chin to your belly buttong!! If you have concerns though keep going back to get checked out, its the only thing that will ease your mind, trust me
Good luck with it xx