Retractor Pain?

[LisaM]

At the three-week mark post surgery, I began having more severe pain that I had experienced previously (except when coughing or sneezing). The pain is located where my heart is. At my post-surgical check up, the surgeon said this is pain from the use of the retractor during the surgery. My cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram and x-ray. All is clear and the new valve is performing well. Has anyone else experienced this "retractor" pain? I have no bruises, but slight swelling of my left breast. Neither Tylenol nor Advil have
aleviated the pain, so I am back to taking a small dose of narcotics again. If you have had experience with this phenomenon, please let me know how long it lasted for you. Thanks!!!

 

[Duffey]

I never experienced it, and I am at a loss for why it would appear three weeks post-op. Maybe someone else has had a similar experience and will be able to answer your question; in the meantime, congrats on the good echo.

 

[pellicle]

I must confess to not knowing what a retractor is, but it sounds odd to me.

So its not in the sternum where the pain from a sneeze comes from is it?

 

[Jkm7]

A retractor is a rib spreader used in thoracic surgery.

 

[Forrest]

Lisa,
When I got home from my surgery I noticed purple bruises on either side of my scar, towards the top. I imagine most of us have these bruises to varying degrees. The bruises on my left side were quite larger than the other side. I never asked about this, but my gal said she heard it was from the clamp (or is it called a “retractor”) that held my chest open during the operation. The left side bruise was sensitive for about a month or two, it felt like someone had previously punched me in the chest real hard. But somehow I could tell it was just a bruise or ache at the base of a rib, or mild pain radiating leftward from the sternum. In hindsight, I should have asked about it to make sure, but since the sensitivity was right beneath the large bruise I wasn’t too concerned. It was occasionally sensitive for a few months longer but to a much lesser degree. It doesn’t register to me anymore, although for the first two winters on cold wet nights I occasionally felt a little twinge in the bone where the bruise was, kind of like mild arthritis, but short in duration. I don’t think this happens anymore, for the most part my body forgets it ever had OHS, but mentally I never forget about my heart…I’m rather close to it .

Best wishes to you in your ongoing recovery, and enjoying your life to its fullest!

 

[Greg a]

At the three-week mark post surgery, I began having more severe pain that I had experienced previously (except when coughing or sneezing). The pain is located where my heart is. At my post-surgical check up, the surgeon said this is pain from the use of the retractor during the surgery. My cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram and x-ray. All is clear and the new valve is performing well. Has anyone else experienced this "retractor" pain? I have no bruises, but slight swelling of my left breast. Neither Tylenol nor Advil have
aleviated the pain, so I am back to taking a small dose of narcotics again. If you have had experience with this phenomenon, please let me know how long it lasted for you. Thanks!!!

Mine was more a spinal pain from retraction as the ribs are spread so far at the front they put pressure on the spine and it takes TIME to return to a natural state ....I have posted pictures in the past of retractors in place and members were very critical so I will give you a link to a journal article talking about rib pain and how it can be reduced by a surgeon..................we all heal at different rates BUT we all do heal

http://www.jtcvsonline.org/article/S0022-5223(05)01072-X/abstract

 

[yotphix]

My chest was super was occasionally painful, and super sensitive to pressure for many months post surgery. What's more, the incision itself seemed to to something to the arrangement of my nerve endings such that a tattoo I got about 8 months post was excruciatingly painful in the area of the incision, while quite bearable elsewhere on my pec. I also had a puffy, tender spot above my right clavicle that a resident said sometimes results from impingements caused by the spreader.
It looks more like a medieval torture device than like a modern medical instrument, and it visits extraordinary violence upon we fortunate souls who benefit from the surgery!

 

[pellicle]

I also found that going to a chiropractor (one with a slightly osteopathy leaning) at about 3 months after surgery helped with the pains I was getting in the area between the shoulder blades. I had assumed that it was related to muscle aches due to (among other provocations) holding myself awkwardly due to the sternal trauma and perhaps the spreading of the sternum during surgery.

I understood that one is not lain in a position that one would ordinarily call comfortable while in surgery.

All the best with your recovery.