6 months post-op on march 26

[chris.c]

I had my aortic valve replaced on september 26, 2012(mini sturnotomy with cryptonite glue). Well, things seamed to be all good up till mid january when i went to get out of bed and used my left arm to push myself up out of bed. i kind of pulled forward a little bit in the motion and i heard a little crack. It didn't hurt so i just thought maybe it was just a muscle since i always got up using my right side and just did it this time (without thinking) on my left. Well it ended up cracking half a douzen times or so after that through coughing and by the second weekend february i felt my sturnum comepletely pop. The glue let go. I had been so proud that i had never felt my sturnum move ever then this happened. Then i started having to carry my cough pillow again. I would manage to go about a week without a crack by being extremely carefull then would cough in my sleep and start all over again. I started sleeping in my lazy boy so i wouldn't have to push myself out of bed but the mechanisim broke on my chair. I hadn't been sick all winter then my step son came with a bad cold after spending a weekend @ his dad's, so i left home and went and stayed @ my camp to avoid catching and continualy crack my sturnum. I went about 7 days and was feeling good then coughed in my sleep again. I broke down and my wife told me to go to the emerge and see what they say. Was terrified that they would tell me i need to be opened up again to fix it. Anyway the doctor checked me over and did an ultrasound of my chest and told me everything looked good and that it was just a set back, to relax a try to avoid anything that would make it crack. To give it a another 12 months and this will be all behind me. That every time the seam cracks, my body will reinforce the bone and it will get stronger. So i ended up spending 10 days away and my wife begged me to come as they were pretty much over there colds. Big mistake, i was sick within days of returning home. Went to the clinic and my NursePractioner refused to give me antibiotics. Fast forward 2 weeks and this awfull cold turned to pnamonia. Now on antibiotics and went about to weeks withought it cracking even with my coughing constantly, so i thought it was getting stronger but during a coughing fit last night it cracked again, back to scare 1. I am looking forward to this winter ending so i can stop coughing and catching colds so this can heel.

 

[chris.c]

Has anyone else been through this or is it just me that will never heel. I have no problem lifting, pushing or pulling but since the operation, i have always felt pain when i do a hugging motion. I asume it's because my chest muscles pull on my sturnum and force on the weak part of my sturnum. I do beleive that a good portion of the pain i get is from the wires. I just want to get to a point where it never cracks again and i can get back to normal. Was looking forward to fishing this summer but i think that will be out of the question as any side way motion inword will probably crack this thing again.

 

[epstns]

I didn't have any complications regarding my sternum mending properly (lots of wire in mine), but it was over a year before I could feel comfortable doing any activity that required strong pectoral (upper chest) muscles. Mine were just too sore for a long time.

 

[tom in MO]

My sternum was fine. I did a few things that caused pain, but it went away. Now after about a year, I get a few aches, but ignore them.

Per surgeon and literature, I was told that after about 6 weeks, the sternum knits and after 6 months it is completely healed. I had an XRay after about 4-6 weeks per suregeon's order to make sure it was healing properly and based upon this and an exam was released by my surgeon from his care. If I were having problems with my sternum, I'd contact my surgeon.

 

[clay_from_nj]

Has anyone else been through this or is it just me that will never heel. I have no problem lifting, pushing or pulling but since the operation, i have always felt pain when i do a hugging motion. I asume it's because my chest muscles pull on my sturnum and force on the weak part of my sturnum. I do beleive that a good portion of the pain i get is from the wires. I just want to get to a point where it never cracks again and i can get back to normal. Was looking forward to fishing this summer but i think that will be out of the question as any side way motion inword will probably crack this thing again.

We're all different, of course. I had my AVR at the end of September and have had no problem (besides discovering that I seem to have had acid reflux all along, causing a lot of my "heart" symptoms). I've been exercising regularly, starting with walking every day and progressing to the past month or two with strength training, including some dumbbell lifting. Mine was a "redo" sternotomy (first one at 10 years old for ASD) and went very smoothly. New aortic valve, quitting smoking, eating MUCH better and having a regular exercise plan (I use the free version of bodbot.com) seems to be a great combination.

Don't quit. You'll only get stronger, and once the bone is healed, it won't just crack open again. Some residual stiffness, pain, and noises can be attributed to the cartilage along the sides of the sternum, swollen, strained, and irritated from the horrible experience it's been put through. (See Costochondritis.) For a few weeks, I thought my sternum would never heal right and that it was cracking and grinding all the time. I now think it was just the cartilage complaining. Gentle exercise, including stretching, (as approved by your doc) is probably the best way to get your chest back to normal.


Lately, these words from Winston Churchill help me to stay motivated and focused:

“The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.”

 

[chris.c]

It would be sweet if it is this costochondritis. But the first crack happened when i was getting up out of bed. Consiquent cracks came from different ways as push up off the bed, crawling on the bed then coughing. At first there was no pain then with consequent cracks the pain to the side of my skin from the insision would go numb and hurt to the touch. It progress to when i felt the pop and at that point i returned to the pain i had when i first came home. Needing my cough pillow. Blowing my nose hurt again. It has slowly gotten better but with this cold, (i was impressed that it hadn't crack) the cough got deeper and pnamonia set in, but then it did crack again after about 10 days and i go back to the cough pillow again. I went to the emerge about a month ago for this and the DR there told me that an exray wouldn't show anything so she did an altrasound and said that everything looked good. That i should avoid activity and avoid coughing as much as possible so that the cracking stops and the bone heels. She told me it would heel regardless. If it is the sturnum that is fracturing, that with every fracture, my body will increase the size of the bone and make it stronger. GIve it a year to 18 months from that day and all of this would be a distant memory. What i am concerned about is that the cryptonight glue is in the way now for the bone to heel and act like a barier for the bone to bond. That it can only conect threw the pores of the glue and above or bellow it. I am so scared that i get told that they have to go back in and remove the glue and start all over again. I can't do that. I do not want to go threw that agian. I have fractered fingers before and they have heeled over time. Heck last spring i rolled my ancle in tall grass and fractured a bone on the top of my baby toe and i didn't get a cast like my Nurse Practtioner told me to do and it heeled on it's own. This has to heel, i just have to give it time. I've accepted that i will loose another year of my life. Can't be active like i normaly am. No fishing again this year. Stay off the quads. No hunting in the fall and hopefully by next winter this cracking will be far behind me. I so want to get back to normal. Tired of existing instead of living. I know my wife misses her husband the energizer bunny that she could not keep up with. I want this brain fog to go away. I look around and see work and things that need to be done and when i get to feeling pretty good i go back to auto pilot and forget that i have to be carefull and it frustrates me. I am very independant and have a hard time asking others for help. I am use to being the rock. I am use to just bulling my way threw pain. I try to let my son do the stuff i need done but as he gets frustrated as he doesn't know how to do most things that i have learned over my 41+ years, i end up doing it and showing him how. In the hospital i was like a lion in a cage. I wanted and needed to be free. My wife is a rehab nurse in a rehab hospital and tells me of people she takes care off. I know i could not live in a facility like that.

 

[kfay]

Chris, Did they do an x-ray of your chest in the er or just an echo? I don't believe an echo is going to show a problem with the sternum not healing properly. No offense to the dr. in the er, but I'd leave something like this up to your surgeon. I think I'd put a call into his office this week and let them know what is happening. After 6 months, your sternum should be completely healed, if it healed properly. Those of us who were wired together don't need the wires anymore by the 6 month mark, but it's not worth another surgery to go back in and take them out unless there are other problems. Likewise, your glue shouldn't be playing a role here anymore. Also, since that glue is a relatively new way to close sternums, there may be long term issues that everyone may not yet be aware of. If I were in your shoes, to play it safe, I'd call your surgeon and go let him check it out. You don't want an unstable sternum that hasn't healed properly. He needs to know if that is indeed the case so he can help get it fixed for you.

Good luck,

Kim

 

[Gribur]

Wow Chris 6 months, I was just looking as i have not been on in a long time and I am so thrilled things have been going pretty well for ya. It is great to just see that all is good and i wish you continued healing and peace. If you need anything let me know, if you remember me lol, check your inbox past messages. Talk soon and take care.

 

[chris.c]

going for chest xray tomoro

 

[chris.c]

So i just got the results from my xray. I have 2 broken wires. Sending me for another xray for more details but seems to be normal with bone forming. Told to take it easy for 4-6 weeks and avoid coughing or anything that can make it crack again. At this point they think it is a fracture with no seperation visible.

 

[chris.c]

They sent me for more xrays and i got to c them this time. I am confused because u can't even c any bone. The sternem is invisible. So what test can be done to check and c if my sternem is sepereted? Will an MRI work with a St Jude mechanicle valve? My chest hasn't cracked in about a month now that i am waring my back brace up just under my arms with a towel folded up to fill the cavity of my sternem. Certain movements still hurt like i was putting a sleeping bag away on a high shelf and that hurt like a sharp stabbing pain. Just want to be normal again.

 

[clumsydancer]

It sounds like it may work itself out. I'm sorry you're going through this and my thoughts are with you. As a newbie, please post what you can. Again, thoughts with you that this is not a huge issue.

Nate

 

[Oilman]

Hey Chris,

Sorry to here that you are having pain associated with the sturnum healing. Getting that cold sounded like it created some added pain also. I too started to hear some crackling noizes from my sturnum at week 4-5 and mentioned it to the surgeon at my week 6 visit. He said it should be fine fine and that some noize is normal for some and I read lots of posts that said the same thing was happening to others. I never have felt any pain while the sturnum has crackled, so hoping things are fine. I have a long sturnum, as the surgeon said at our visit, explaining why my scar is 9 1/2 " long. He laughed and said it just kept going. So I think I have a dozen or so wires implanted, I to worry if I have broken any with the healing process. I still today get little cracks now and then that sound like a knuckle cracking, but no pain at all, I'm hoping it's all good tho. I can relate to wanting things to just be normal again, I am 4.5 months out now and my new normal is getting better each day, maybe not as fast as I like it too, but its coming. I wish you luck with the healing my friend, sounds like things are starting to turn the corner.