Sternum Pain from Wires?

[jumpy]

I'm about 3.5 weeks post op and things are going well. However, I have a very sharp pain which is beside the incision. It's very painful when I move around and particularly painful to touch the skin. It's a sharp pain which makes me think it's related to the sternum wires. They say I can drive by Friday but I don't think I can close the truck door without a significant amount of pain. Laughing is ridiculous so I can't imagine sneezing. Friday will be four weeks so is this just normal surgery pain or something else.

 

[Paleowoman]

I can't imagine anyone not having some degree of surgery pain at only four weeks post surgery ! Of course everyone is different but your sternum has been cut and bones take time to heal, plus all the muscles and things cut too, including nerves. If you are concerned that your pain is excesive then it would probably be a good idea to see your cardiologist or GP.

The wires can be a little problem - I have a point in my incision scar where there's a wire which is definitley uncomfortable if I touch the skin - nearly two years out from surgery. I also get a pian where one of the ribs joins the sternum which is a degree of costochondritis - nothing serious nor needing anything, just the result of this type of surgery. I do let my cardiologist know how it is when I see him for checks.

Hope you feel more comfortable soon !

 

[epstns]

I don't remember having any remarkable pains at the 4 to 5 week point, but that was almost 5 years ago, so things tend to fade from memory unless they are really strong. Like Anne (Paleogirl) said, though, having some pains that soon after major surgery doesn't seem unexpected. It is possible that there is a sharp spot on one of your wires that is directly under your skin, and that pulling that bit of skin tighter may cause sharp pain. Others have noted things like this. In my case, since I'm sort of a skinny old gym rat, I can definitely feel where the wires lie under my skin, and if I press or rub where they are, it is mildly painful. You may have a similar situation, but since you are still in the early phases of your recovery, the pain may be sharper. I would mention it to your doc. He may have some insight to the issue.

 

[Eva]

I had an extreme pain at the tip of my sternum where the wires were knotted. I chose to tolerate the pain than to have my skin reopened to pull the wires out. I'm glad I decided that because the pain is very minimal now!
Don't drive if you're not ready! I could not nor was I cleared to drive before twelve weeks. I did try, but I could not pull the car out of the garage nor tilt my head to look backward. The sternum takes 12 weeks to 12 months (in some).

Check it out to be on the safe side, and keep us. Posted.

 

[epstns]

Eva - That 12 week time quoted for healing of the sternum is probably for 100% healing. What they missed telling you is that the bone is about 80% healed by 8 weeks, and more than half healed by 4 or 5 weeks. That is why many surgeons (mine included) clear their patients to drive at around 5 weeks. A lot depends upon the individual patient, so take your own state of healing into consideration. Your doctor may say it is fine to drive, but if you do not feel competent to drive, don't.

 

[Eva]

Hi Steve,

My doctor's wanted to be on the safe side! He was afraid in case I had an accident (no matter whose fault is). So, you're right he wanted it to be 100% healed!

 

[dangerousmotto]

I had significant pain radiating away from my sternum up through 12 to 13 weeks out (full median sternotomy). I'm quite thin, and the heads of the zip tie closures were visibly pushing out my skin on my chest, however the pain was most intense proximal to these areas, not right on top. My surgeon took one look at them and said we should take them out.

I had the surgery to remove them 9 days ago. It was a complete breeze. They reopened my incision, pulled out the 4 zip ties and two wires. I was on pain meds for 36 hours or so. I went downhill skiing yesterday (8 days after). For context my surgery was Sept 4th, 2015.

I'm very happy the wires were removed. i can breath much deeper, and I don't have to worry about bumping into the tips of the zip ties anymore.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I had significant pain radiating away from my sternum up through 12 to 13 weeks out (full median sternotomy)

I'm quite the "knee jerk reaction" to this, but be careful of infections in this area. Some bacteria do well to hide with their back against the wall (at microscopic scales the wires are a steel wall) and are known for infecting prostheses around bone.

I had this with my last OH sugery

My surgeon took one look at them and said we should take them out.

just evaluate first if you have an infection before doing that ... Wire removal may pull any bacteria through to the underside of the sternum ... (again my own experience) and you don't want that.

I'm very happy the wires were removed. i can breath much deeper, and I don't have to worry about bumping into the tips of the zip ties anymore.

it sounds like all was good ... but one last point, the wires are just twisted together like fencing wire and that is turned down and pressed into the bone. I believe this was adequate for elderly patients but remains a point of "needs development" for younger patients.

Enjoy the skiing

 

[epstns]

it sounds like all was good ... but one last point, the wires are just twisted together like fencing wire and that is turned down and pressed into the bone. I believe this was adequate for elderly patients but remains a point of "needs development" for younger patients.

Possibly so, pellicle, but wouldn't this become a non-issue once full bone healing has taken place?

I have seen X-ray images of my wires and they were, as you noted, just twisted together as one would splice an electrical wire. I have never sensed any movement or other issues once the bone healed - even when doing sets of push-ups (press-ups to those in the UK).

 

[dangerousmotto]

it sounds like all was good ... but one last point, the wires are just twisted together like fencing wire and that is turned down and pressed into the bone. I believe this was adequate for elderly patients but remains a point of "needs development" for younger patients.

Enjoy the skiing

Good points - I showed no other sign of infection, but that's a great caveat for those in similar situations. One thing I'd add too - I its crucial to understand what kind of closures we are talking about. For reference - here's what I had (the quarter is for scale)



There were traditional wires at top and bottom, with the swiss peak zip tie closures down the middle (4). The issue for me was the heads of the zip ties - the square parts, that were pushing out of my skin and causing bruising

 

[pellicle]

Hi

Thanks for the reply, sadly i cant see the image.

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There were traditional wires at top and bottom, with the swiss peak zip tie closures down the middle (4). The

Haven't heard of them, will look them up

Merry Christmas

 

[pellicle]

Hi Eps

Possibly so, pellicle, but wouldn't this become a non-issue once full bone healing has taken place?

The sternum is one of the bones in the body that undergoes great flexing regularly. Everyone (four people) i know who has been under 60 , had a sternotomy , does martial arts has had a problem with wires pronating. Me too. I had the wires removed from the 2nd surgery as well as the 3rd (although for different reasons). Both times it felt more comfortable afterwards.

I conjecture its the tumbles and rolls more than the hits.

Ukemi




Best Wishes

 

[almost_hectic]

I'm about 3.5 weeks post op and things are going well. However, I have a very sharp pain which is beside the incision. It's very painful when I move around and particularly painful to touch the skin. It's a sharp pain which makes me think it's related to the sternum wires. They say I can drive by Friday but I don't think I can close the truck door without a significant amount of pain. Laughing is ridiculous so I can't imagine sneezing. Friday will be four weeks so is this just normal surgery pain or something else.

I was strictly told no driving until 8 weeks. And even then I didn't feel like I was ready. I was scared to death of other cars on the road, getting bumped or hit and having an air bag deploy in my chest! Granted it was mostly irrational fear but that's what kept going through my mind. I still had a lot of chest pain and felt unsure of being able to react quickly if I had to steer the wheel to avoid something sudden without experiencing tremendous pain, as my arms were still moving very slowly.

I too was concerned for a number of weeks about incision pain. Not right at the incision but just to the one side of my incision. I was worried that I split something by lifting too much or sneeze or something. My pain went away after weeks so I honestly can't say for certain what it was from. If I had to guess I'm going with nerve pain for me. Having neck and back issues I sort of recognize "referred" pain. Having my sternum sawn open and ribs spread apart moves all sorts of things from where they belong. Combine that with the lack of use of my arms and sleeping like a stiff board I think it took a loooong time to move thing back to where they belong and I think I was experiencing some pinched nerve issues in my thoracic spine. I mostly recognized it by sensing the pain subside then return then repeat, and not always in the same spot. Sometimes the pain was very near my incision, sometimes it would move further away like over my nipple, or slightly across the top near my collar bone. Never be afraid to ask your doctor. But don't be surprised if they tell you it's nothing. It's probably not what you want to hear because you know the pain is very real. But it may actually be nothing. My pain went away eventually, although sometimes I can't faintly feel it come back to remind me. I have no way of knowing if it was a pinched nerve or just the healing process of the sternum being stretched wide open. Time is the most essential to healing, there's no way to speed it up unfortunately.

 

[dangerousmotto]

Its fascinating the difference in driving times. I was prepped for 4-6 weeks of no driving, and I was cleared to drive at 10 days! I might be slightly younger than average for these procedures, but that seemed pretty aggressive to me. In reality I waited until 3 weeks to drive, which was also when I started doing every other day back to to work.

 

[Dodger Fan]

My surgeon told me that I could pretty much do whatever I wanted after 4 weeks. He recommended I take 3 months off work. He said at 8 weeks I'll be exhausted. If I want to go back sooner, I can. I am having AVR on 1/11/16 so I haven't had the experience yet, just relaying what he told me.

 

[dangerousmotto]

I went back to work way too early. I was going stir crazy and thought it would help. I would make it through a 6 hourish day and come home and collapse on the couch. I wouldn't leave it again until I moved to the bedroom. Whatever your short term disability is - max it out. I could've gone 8 weeks. I should've gone 8 weeks. I didn't set myself back or anything, but it was unnecessary suffering for sure. Dodger Fan - best of luck you'll do great.

 

[epstns]

Remember - we all heal differently, and at different rates. Add to that the fact that we probably have very different work environments and it is all a big dice game. I was able to go back to work after about 5 weeks, but I went part-time. My doctor would only authorize my return to work part-time until 8 weeks after surgery, then he allowed work "as tolerated." By 9 or 10 weeks, I was back to my regular 10-hour days - but I work at an executive position in an office, with no business travel required.

I had no problems driving after 5 weeks, but I did have to be extra careful when backing into my driveway. The driveway is between two houses, and is about 120 feet long. You have to either back in or back out - no room to turn around. At the time I had a very large car, with full-power everything, so effort wasn't the issue. Twisting and turning my body was the limiting factor, but as long as I could go slowly I had no issues. Day-to-day driving, with power steering and automatic transmission was no problem. Some folks have expressed fear over what may happen if they had an accident, but my doc felt that for an accident to be truly threatening to a healing sternum after 5 weeks would have to be a life-threatening impact, and if so, the sternum might not be the biggest worry.

 

[Dodger Fan]

I thought 3 weeks seemed pretty ambitious. Thanks dangerousmotto.

 

[dangerousmotto]

Remember - we all heal differently, and at different rates. Add to that the fact that we probably have very different work environments and it is all a big dice game. I was able to go back to work after about 5 weeks, but I went part-time. My doctor would only authorize my return to work part-time until 8 weeks after surgery, then he allowed work "as tolerated." By 9 or 10 weeks, I was back to my regular 10-hour days - but I work at an executive position in an office, with no business travel required.

I had no problems driving after 5 weeks, but I did have to be extra careful when backing into my driveway. The driveway is between two houses, and is about 120 feet long. You have to either back in or back out - no room to turn around. At the time I had a very large car, with full-power everything, so effort wasn't the issue. Twisting and turning my body was the limiting factor, but as long as I could go slowly I had no issues. Day-to-day driving, with power steering and automatic transmission was no problem. Some folks have expressed fear over what may happen if they had an accident, but my doc felt that for an accident to be truly threatening to a healing sternum after 5 weeks would have to be a life-threatening impact, and if so, the sternum might not be the biggest worry.

This driveway thing still gets me a bit - its funny the things you discover to be challenging that you had no idea would be. The stuff no one warns you about

 

[aweunited]

Hmmm, really enjoying people talking about all this, its a lot of good personal experiences and makes me feel less alone. here I am in my 6th week post surgery and I don't feel like the wires hurt at all. the sutures are poking out of the skin a little, so there is that. The sutures are annoying but not really painful unless I rub them or something like that. I feel like most of my pain came from muscle aches and my scoliosis. But I have not had that much pain since week 3 anyway.


I was told not to drive for 6 weeks, but my newborn son had me driving Mom to the hospital at 4 weeks post surgery when she went into labor. It was pretty straining because I pretty much HAD to spend a good portion of the day shuttling her and the kids to the hospital since there isn't anyone to drive for us. It was just one day and I feel much better now that a few weeks has passed. The twisting while driving is/was definitely the worst part of it. Although I think some of the discomfort from twisting comes from being stiff and stretching out muscles I haven't used in a while.