13 days post surgery after having sternum wires out

[tex]

I had my sterum wires 13 days ago, what should of been an hour op lasted 4 hours most of the wires had part fused to the sterum bones, for the last 2 days had a niggle pain at the end of my scar, hurts when im walking about, but last night didnt get any sleep was so painful, the pain goes from bottom of scar to under my right breast, hurts more when i move about have to hold it to walk, does throb when im sat but not all the time though, just took my temp its 37.5, i do feel a bit sicky as well, any ideas.
Thanks
Jane

 

[Woodbutcher]

Good morning Jane,
Sorry to hear you're feeling a bit rough. I dont even know what normal temperature is so cant be of much help. I hope you feel better later though.
Justin.

 

[Smiley2000]

Hi there.

37,5 is just about not-normal temp. anything from 38 is fever and should be investigated. If you start to get fever-symptoms: cold chills and body ache, please report back to your Cardio/Surgeon. It could be signs of infection.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

 

[Lynlw]

I would call the doc too. Especially if hurts now more than it did earlier in recovery

 

[tex]

I went back to the hospital this morning couldnt stand the pain anymore, they say its all the nerve ending starting to knit back together, and he thinks the pains worse because of the surgery i had before, he also tried to take what we thought was 2 stitches out, and i nearly shot through the roof, he said its 1 running stitch right through the scar and the bottom part of the stitch is trapped in a nerve, so he couldnt get it out, he said it needs to come out because of the risk of infection so he was going to make an appointment for me to go back and see the surgeon, he said when this happens they usually put you to sleep to take them out. He put me on some new meds called Amitriptyline, this works well on nerve pain, i took 1 when i got back from hospital then slept for 5 hours and still very dopey. Thanks all for your messages.
Jane

 

[Lynlw]

I went back to the hospital this morning couldnt stand the pain anymore, they say its all the nerve ending starting to knit back together, and he thinks the pains worse because of the surgery i had before, he also tried to take what we thought was 2 stitches out, and i nearly shot through the roof, he said its 1 running stitch right through the scar and the bottom part of the stitch is trapped in a nerve, so he couldnt get it out, he said it needs to come out because of the risk of infection so he was going to make an appointment for me to go back and see the surgeon, he said when this happens they usually put you to sleep to take them out. He put me on some new meds called Amitriptyline, this works well on nerve pain, i took 1 when i got back from hospital then slept for 5 hours and still very dopey. Thanks all for your messages.
Jane

Well that sounds painful, I am sorry you are going thru this, you remind me alot of Justin. Be careful while taking the Amitriptyline, I take that at night and haven't had problems with it, but people can get a little messed up on it. I can imagine you slept well, That's one of the reasons I take it at night, since I have trouble sleeping ect.
http://www.drugs.com/amitriptyline.html

 

[Lynlw]

Did they do any cultures either when they had you opened to take the wires out or this morning?

 

[tex]

Yes they did when they had me open because they found that sack of clear fluid, also yesterday he took a swab from around the stitches that are still in. I am going to phone the cardiac nursing team this morning to see about having this stitch out, i was reading last night about leaving your stitches in to long and the risk of infection setting in this is the last thing i was want, this happened when i had my OHS i ended up with MRSA i dont want to go through that again.
Thanks all for your advice
Jane

 

[tex]

Hi Lyn,
Just wanted to thank you for the link to the the Amitriptyline, i read it, i did feel a bit tense this morning when i woke up, i did have a great sleep though. How are things with you and your family? But again thanks for your advice.
Take Care
Jane

 

[Lynlw]

Yes they did when they had me open because they found that sack of clear fluid, also yesterday he took a swab from around the stitches that are still in. I am going to phone the cardiac nursing team this morning to see about having this stitch out, i was reading last night about leaving your stitches in to long and the risk of infection setting in this is the last thing i was want, this happened when i had my OHS i ended up with MRSA i dont want to go through that again.
Thanks all for your advice
Jane

Hopefully everything is negative. Justin went thru alot because of infection after 2 of his surgeries too, so i can understand never wanting to go thru that again

Are these the internal stitches that should disolve or regular stitiches oyou can see on the outside that have to be removed?

 

[tex]

They are internal but there is a knot at the bottom and top of the scar, this is just one long stitch that they use to make the scar look better, the nurse told me they were dissolvable but its nylon looks like fishing line LOL. Going back wednesday next week to have it taken out, cant wait LOL.
Thanks again Lynn.
Take care
Jane

 

[Lynlw]

They are internal but there is a knot at the bottom and top of the scar, this is just one long stitch that they use to make the scar look better, the nurse told me they were dissolvable but its nylon looks like fishing line LOL. Going back wednesday next week to have it taken out, cant wait LOL.
Thanks again Lynn.
Take care
Jane

That's what I thought, Justin has a big problem with not dissolving the "disolving sutures" too and they end up working their way to the top and look kind of like pimples. and his thread does look like fishing line