Post Surgery Shortness of Breath

[bigfish35]

I am now 3 weeks post op for MV repair and AV replacement. I have COPD and, prior to surgery, had mild shortness of breath which increased occasionally with periodic COPD flare ups. Now, I have constant, severe shortrness of breath. I can't lie down or sleep in a bed, but must sleep in my recliner. I run out of breath just getting dressed in the morning. Doctors seem to think that this condition will abate in time but it seems to be getting worse, not better. X-rays don't show any problem but haven't had a CT scan yet.

Has anyone else experienced a similar shortness of breath post op and was the condition corrected or improved?

Many thanks for any response.

Bigfish35

 

[neil]

hi......i was short of breath for a while after op,it seems to vary with everbody,but if your worried get hold of the doc,mine got better but it did take its time,hope you get it sorted

 

[Ross]

I was short of breath, have COPD and we hoped that AVR would solve the problem. It didn't. I'm now oxygen dependent and have severe sleeop apnea, specifically hypopnea and am now on a Bilevel BiPAP at night (Basically a noninvasive ventilator to force air into my lungs). Everyone is short of breath after surgery, but if your still having problems, it's time to consult your Pulmonologist. I hate them, but what choice is there? Not being able to breath sucks.

 

[Jeanie]

Definitely contact your surgeon and/or cardiologist if surgeon has already handed off your follow up care to the cardio. The shortness of breath could be any of these, the COPD you mentioned (you may need to be on oxygen), or congestive heart failure, or arrythmia. Any or all of those could cause it, but you need a Doctor to get the correct diagnosis and treatment. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Luana]

I got SOB 2 weeks after surgery and it got worse over the next several days so I went to the ER and fortunately all that was found was a small pericardial effusion, no pneumonia or pulmonary embolism, which can cause SOB. If you haven't already contacted your cardiologist, do so ASAP.

 

[Philip B]

Sob?

Sob?

I think the shortness of breath thing is pretty common after OHS. I was pretty fixated on trying to get my lungs back in shape after surgery. Despite relegious use of that nifty little device they give you at the hopsital (I forget what it's called), I still struggled abit. I actually had two of those devices. I kept one in my office and one at home. Probably the best advice has already been given...get with your cardiologist as quickly as possible and develop a game plan.

-Philip

 

[Bill B]

I had worse SOB after surgery for a number of weeks. I was led to believe that relieveing my AV stenosis with the AVR would increase my exercise capacity fairly quickly. Instead my ejection fraction went DOWN immediately post-op and I struggled with SOB from simple activities. I don't think I even got back to my stenotic exercise capacity for 8-10 weeks. So, despite the AVR I was awfully impaired. That doesn't mean you should just accept what you have. I had to WORK hard to increase my stamina. I would hope your doctor would have a plan to either help you improve your stamina and relieve your severe SOB so you can at the very least sleep comfortably. You say it is getting worse. You can have bad days, but over all, things shouild be getting better, not worse.

Bill

 

[Lynlw]

I am now 3 weeks post op for MV repair and AV replacement. I have COPD and, prior to surgery, had mild shortness of breath which increased occasionally with periodic COPD flare ups. Now, I have constant, severe shortrness of breath. I can't lie down or sleep in a bed, but must sleep in my recliner. I run out of breath just getting dressed in the morning. Doctors seem to think that this condition will abate in time but it seems to be getting worse, not better. X-rays don't show any problem but haven't had a CT scan yet.

Has anyone else experienced a similar shortness of breath post op and was the condition corrected or improved?

Many thanks for any response.
Bigfish35

My Mom , like Ross had COPD going into OHS and had alot of problems post op, never got off O2. BUT beside your COPD, there could be other issues, I don't know which doctors orderred the Xrays and said it should get better, but If it is getting worse, you could have pericardial or plueral fluid (around your heart or lungs) one of the symptons is SOB and they only way they are able to tell when my son has pericardial effusions is thru echos.

 

[james]

Get in cardiac rehab as soon as you can. You may have deeper issues but, rehab WILL help and it is one of the few things that you can control.

 

[csutherland]

Jerry developed severe SOB a few weeks after his AVR. He had been walking and doing excellent until it popped up. After getting someone to listen to him, an echo and a TEE were done and I'll always remember the nurse's remark when she came to get me in the waiting room, "Jerry's going to have surgery again; there's fluid in the pericardium and his heart is already compromised." They performed a Pericardial Window and drained fluid for several days. I believe he was hospitalized 13 days for that little episode.

 

[RANDYJEAN]

I'm kinda glad to see this thread. I thought I was the only person to experience shortness of breath after surgery. In my case, I DO have a bit of an explanation. I had the less invasive procedure and my right lung was deliberately deflated for surgery...well, it hasn't 100% re-inflated. I've had 2 x-rays since surgery (one 2 weeks after and one last week--4 weeks after), and it's getting better but still not there yet. But still...my valve was SO BAD that my surgeon (and my cardio AND my GP) all keep asking, "Wow...you must really feel better, huh? Didn't you notice the difference immediately??" My answer is no...but then, strangely enough, I didn't experience any symptoms beforehand, either--it was just a fluke that my bad valve was discovered. So pre-surgery, I kept telling myself how cool it was gonna be that I was gonna end up feeling better than I even knew I could....uh, not yet! I feel exactly how I did BEFORE surgery. Now, to be honest, I haven't done the amount of walking that i should, so having read this thread, I'm thinking perhaps if I really get into rehabbing, I'll begin to see a difference.

Oh, and by the way, two weeks after surgery, all of a sudden I started feeling a much more severe shortness of breath--similar to how I felt in the hospital (when my OTHER lung partially collapsed--long story)...AND I started running a low-grade fever. I phoned the on-call cardiologist (it was a weekend) and he said that when a lung hasn't totally re-inflated, you can get a low-grade infection in the area that hasn't recovered. He said to take 2 tylenol and see if that took care of things. I did and the fever went away. The next day, the fever came back and I did the same thing with the same result. I was still having a lot of trouble breathing and planned to see my doc the first thing in the morning....but the next day I felt 100% better--the whole breathing problem was gone and the fever never came back. (Oh, I should point out that I upped my practice on the spirometer thingy, and that's probably what took care of things).

~Randy

 

[nngbwh]

No SOB for me just alittle incision pain.

 

[bigfish35]

Report on Post Surgery SOB by Bigfish35

Report on Post Surgery SOB by Bigfish35

Went in to see my cardiologist Monday (4/12). He asked that an EKG be done prior to our consultation. When the technician finished the EKG she left immediately saying she had to see the nurse. Within 2 minutes I was surrounded by 2 nurses and a PA and was informed that they were taking me to the ER because of an elevated heart rate - 150! As I was entering Room 3 of the ER I heard over the PA system "Code Red, Room 3, Code Red, Room 3". I didn't know what Code Red was but I knew it couldn't be a good thing. Shortly an MD and several nurses and a lot of equipment appeared.

I was given adenosine and diltiazem IV and eventually my heart rate came down to 105. My cardiologist came in and said by atrial flutter was now a problem and that he would perform a transophageal echocardiogream and cardioversion (electoral shock to the heart to bring it back to rhythm) the next day. This was sucessfully done and my breathing improved significantly. Still not normal but any improvement was welcome.

Thanks for all of your helpful replies (especially those who urged me to get off my butt and see my cardiologist immediately). I think I dodged a bullet here.

Bigfish35

 

[nngbwh]

Glad you are doing O.K. That probably scared the crap out of you.

 

[Lynlw]

I'm glad you went and got it checked. I can only imagine how scarey it was to hear a code and know it was for you. I'm glad you are feeling better hopefully now you can get on with your recovery and no more bumps in the road.

 

[Ross]

Just thank God you weren't hearing CODE BLUE!

This further proves that some people simply don't know they are in Afib.

 

[echoguy]

Thank you so much for sharing the follow up to your story. Lots of stuff for all of us to learn.

Great that you are back in rhythm. Here's to a bumpless remainder of recovery.

 

[Luana]

Randy,
Two weeks to the day after my surgery was when my SOB started. I also had some low-grade fevers off and on, and obviously you don't want to ignore that and certainly don't want to get endocarditis. My SOB lasted through the whole month of Dec. Glad to read you're doing beter. Take care!
Luana

 

[Doug]

It took me a month or so before I was not feeling the SOB, but it was not constant for me. I had to spend a lot of time in the recliner.

Ross, you are right about the A-Fib. When I was still in the hospital I had no clue why they were waking me up in the middle of the night. n Of course it wasn't much different than my pre-surgery problems.

 

[Bill B]

WOW! Glad you went into get it checked. So, you didn't notice the flutter?