Recovery after Heart surgery

Dear Friends, It has been a while since I posted! As some of You may remember, I had a Triple By-Pass in Oct. I was doing Great and went back to work. I am a Pastor and a Contractor! The Contracting is what pays the Bills. About a month and a half after the surgery, I began working and feeling good as I had My Son to Help! I then began to get some pain in My shoulders. This I was told was due to the Surgery. I went to see the Cardiologist and He said it was also anxiety. He wants Me to have a Nuclear stress test to check Me out for My own peace of Mind. The problem is My stress and Anxiety is off the charts! The only symptom I had before the surgery was shoulder pain, so My Mind is running to the worst possible scenerio! You Folks have always helped with My Pacemaker questions, so I thought I would ask any of You about Your similar experiences! Have you had by-pass surgery? If so what did You experienceafter? Any back or shoulder pain? Any Help would be appreciated! Thanks, Pastor Mike

4 Comments

Shoulder Pain

by Grateful Heart - 2017-01-17 20:18:43

Any chance the new shoulder pain is due to over doing it since you went back to physical work?

I would think the testing prior to your by-pass would have picked anything else up.  Go for the nuclear stress test to ease your mind like the doc said.

An observation...what a difference a year makes!  There is no complaint or concern in your post about your pacemaker Pastor.......success!  

You'll get past this too.  Prayers for you.  

Grateful Heart 

Too soon

by DampDog - 2017-01-18 10:12:09

The sort answer is 6 weeks is way too soon to be going back to any form of physical work. I had my bypass almost 20 years ago I seem to remeber being told it would take 12-16 weeks for the bone in my chest to knit fully. Going back to a job where the heaviest item you are likely to lift is a pen and paper is fine, but anything more strenuous is going to cause you pain and delay your recovery. I had aches pains for many months following my operation and that was going back to a job with no real heavy lifting. Having your chest flailed takes time to heal, ignoring the fact that they cut through your sternum, just wrenching mucles and tendons into places they where never intended to be will leave you stiff for weeks/months.

To be blunt I don't think 6 weeks is long enough to get over it mentally let alone physically. At 6 weeks I would have thought you'd still be doing cardiac rehab to get going!

Yes

by BillH - 2017-01-18 12:05:10

I had a sever muscle spasm from under my left shoulder to my spine. It started about 1 week by CABG and lasted about 2 weeks.

It resolved as I was "working". I had a friend of mine help me finish a deck railing. I was moving cedar 2x4's and sorting hardware and handing him the right parts as he needed them.

But there was no way of confusing my particular muscle pain with cardiac.

If the stress test does not show anything try physical therapy.

Also learn some methods of self-relaxation to help with the anxiety. These include things like deep breathing, guided immagery, and yoga.

 

Back pain (a rather graphic explanation of why following OHS)

by Lurch - 2017-01-18 15:02:05

I had a Triple By-Pass in 1998.  If you have ever seen a video of the procedure you will see that they secure your arms out away from you on a board designed to force your chest up.  Then they cut your sterum and spread your ribs for access.  The muscles in your back are primarily flat muscles.  During this procedure they they get relaxed and get into knots (as it was explained by my Surgeon at the time).  My back ached for several years following that procedure!

It will take some time for your body to totally recover from that procedure.  Good luck!

You know you're wired when...

You have a little piece of high-tech in your chest.

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