valve replacement

[kevindunne]

hi my name is kevin this is my first time post,i had aortic valve and ascending valve replaced in January,doing well for 3 months then had a little episode,had to go to ER was told I had dressler's syndrome,stayed in put me on more meds,6 months later I am still having numbness in my chest and stong tingling in my chest,with the faintist touch on my chest,can anybody please tell me if this is normal or if someone is having these same symptums,sorry not the best speller in the world, thankyou

 

[chaconne]

Kevin,

I'm sorry that you have to go through this. Complications like this are no fun. I don't personally know if your symptoms are normal or not. Have you discussed them with your doctor? Do you have other symptoms like chest pain and fever? I've heard that Dressler's Syndrome can be chronic.

 

[Mentu]

Hi, Kevin, welcome to VR. You may be the first I've seen reporting this problem although I understand that it happens to about 5% of people who have had heart attacks or heart surgery. I do have a slightly different problem although both are associated with inflammation. I have chronic costochondritis which causes discomfort where the ribs connect to the edge of the sternum. When we prepare for heart surgery, there doesn't seem to be much discussion of these "minor" issues that may arise and probably that's a good idea. Most people never develop these problems so they don't need to be told about them and have yet another thing to worry about. Fortunately, they do often fade with time. I still have bouts now and then but they are not as intense as at first and they happen less often as long as I use my little pillow. The pillow keeps the shoulder harness in the car from touching my chest. If I forget, after driving for awhile, I will start to feel the ache return. Actually, I lost my pillow and since have been using one of my dog's stuffed animals which turned out to work quite well. In case it could be of help, here is what my pillow looks like.



Larry

 

[pellicle]

Hi Kevin

sorry to hear about your bumpy ride.

... doing well for 3 months then had a little episode,had to go to ER was told I had dressler's syndrome
...
can anybody please tell me if this is normal or if someone is having these same symptums,sorry

I think that the specifics of each person's bump are different and the types of bump each are statistically unlikely, so : no its not normal to have that, but its sort of normal to have some sort of bump on the road.

Mine was different. No one here seems to have had that either.

All I can say is to pick up and keep plugging at it. There will be times when you feel totally rotten, but they are just times.

Its always coldest just after the dawn.

Best Wishes

 

[tom in MO]

I had numbness and tingling as well. I was told by my surgical nurse that sometimes they cut nerves when they open your chest, that's what gives the numb feeling. It happens to people getting different operations as well. The nerves heal and you get tingling (happened to me) and you sometimes get the feeling back. However, other times the nerves heal but never reattach and the numb feeling remains in certain sections. I am 2 1/2 years out and have full feeling with no numbness. However, if I touch the scar, it's still sensitive, unlike my other scars from other operations.

 

[epstns]

I'm way out there on the other end of the spectrum. I am just over 3 years out from AVR, CABG, and pacemaker surgery. I still have some spots on my chest that are numb, or nearly so. No painful or sensitive spots, just feels funny. I've stopped worrying about it, as all of the tissue appears to be healthy. My doc thought it would subside, but can't find any cause other than possibly damaged nerves. Since this is not an area from which we normally use our sense of touch, I'm just ignoring it.

No big deal, but I did want to alert you to the fact that numbness may be more than temporary, but if there is no underlying issue it is benign.

 

[knotguilty]

If I was you, I would go see an infectious disease doctor to rule out any infection of some kind.

 

[slipkid]

I'm about 12 weeks out post surgery, have similar symptoms to what you report. in addition to a valve replacement I also had double coronary bypass done where they took an artery from my left chest area though, which affects the nerve & tissue over there.

Just a t-shirt rubbing against the left side of my chest is very uncomfortable, the skin/muscle is very sensitive. But paradoxically I don't have full feeling over there either. I just had a echocardiogram last week and that really hurt (pressure from the probe against my chest). About 4-5 days later my chest is a lot more sensitive/sore than it was prior to that procedure. Oh, and during that at one point my chest loudly cracked, scared the crap out of me. That did not hurt though, strangely. Can't have been a good thing though.

Starting about 2 weeks ago I have had some sharp chest pains that feel like they are inside my chest, not related to the surgery itself. The "nurse practitioner" in the cardiologist's office told me to ignore that pain unless I have other symptoms like shortness of breath, sweating etc that would point to another heart attack. She said I could be experiencing all sorts of pains as things heal. Is she right? I don't know but sounds reasonable. I will mention it to my GP doc when I see him next anyways...

So are you "normal" in this regard with the pain you've been feeling? I guess we all are, kind of. Our bodies have gone through quite a trauma and respond in various ways to all that. Some of us have the same pain stories to share though.

 

[epstns]

slipkid - I had a bypass similar to yours - they used my left interior mammary artery. It has been about 3 1/2 years now, and although I don't have any residual pain, I still have only partial feeling in the left upper chest (pectoral) area. I guess we're all different, but they said that my sense of touch/feeling would return within about 6 months. It never did.

Oh, well. Life is good - I'm not going to let that bother me, considering what we've been through.

 

[tom in MO]

Is she right?

Yes. I had some weird cracking and some weird pains in the chest. A few made me think heart attack, but I knew it was not. They slowly went away with time. There's ribs and tissue around the ribs plus cartilage, all of which heals and goes back into place over time. My worst problem for the first month or so was my shoulder. Now 21/2 years later, I can still get an occasional pain in the same side of the chest, but the shoulder is great.

 

[slipkid]

Sounds like Eps, Tom, & I have some things (pains!) in common.

My left shoulder is screwed up too btw. Really hurts. Something to do with the muscle associated with the rotator cuff (?). Originally I thought maybe my collarbone was fractured again (I broke that one in my 20's).

I really hate the way my left chest feels with what they did to my artery over there, affected the nerves etc. My right leg is even worse though - most of the feeling returned in my chest but nothing in my leg (one of the veins in there used for one of the bypasses). Sucks having body parts that don't even feel like your own flesh. Could be a lot worse I guess.