9 months post-AVR ... chest still sore

[AdrockTN]

Hi all ... I'm 9 months post-AVR & have been having a lot of soreness in my chest as of late ... granted, I've been active in doing push-ups, etc., but thought the soreness would have gone away by now ... anyone else still experience soreness like this?

 

[Aggie85]

I'm only 4 months out but am also still very sore. Mine goes back and forth between what I think of as muscles tightening along incision line and what feels like pain in the bone itself. Some of the soreness was from the weight of my womanly assets pulling on chest muscles. I'm not sure why I'm still having bone pain. The incision is healed although other issues going on with it and sternum feels healed but is still sore. My cardiologist said I may have the chest pain for quite some time as this was the fourth time I was cut open and scar tissue takes longer to heal. .... Were you approved for push-ups? I've been doing cardiac rehab for a month now and they still won't approve my rowing machine I have at home. Best of luck with recovery and maybe lay off the push-ups for a while and see if that helps. Linda

 

[pellicle]

what level of soreness? Same (unchanged) as just after surgery? That you are doing pushups inclines me to think not.

Get your Dr to check that its all ok, and that the bone (sternum) is properly knitted. However it took some months for mine to settle down , even still I get occasional sharp short pains from in there from time to time.

I cycle most days and do light weights (bench press, pulldowns, curls, rows, military press...) every morning (because I've always done light weights every morning).

If you are realllllyyyy unlucky you may be having what I had.

 

[Paleowoman]

Hi all ... I'm 9 months post-AVR & have been having a lot of soreness in my chest as of late ... granted, I've been active in doing push-ups, etc., but thought the soreness would have gone away by now ... anyone else still experience soreness like this?

Yes. I'm eight months post op. The last couple of months I've been getting soreness around the sternum and extending into my ribs on the left side. Often hurts when I breathe in along the sternum and on the left. It's not like the soreness I got during the first few months post surgery, I've been doing more exercise, more weight lifting, heavier weights. I never got pains like this pre-surgery and I was lifting more then. I told my cardiologist and he did some blood tests to check for inflammation - he told me the results were normal as my ESR and white blood count was normal, but my CRP was a bit above normal, so I'm mystified. You might want to see your doctor to check things out. Do let us know if you find out anything !

 

[epstns]

It could be just that you are using muscles differently and stressing the muscles, tendons and bone more than you did for the past months. I am now 3 1/2 years post op, but when I re-started doing push-ups at about 12 months, I was so sore that I thought I shouldn't have been doing that degree of exercise. Silly me. . . I just "worked through it" and gradually the pain and discomfort subsided. Might be worth a word or two at your next doctor visit, but probably you're just using muscles more than before.

 

[AdrockTN]

Definitely not to the level of soreness that I experienced right after surgery ... at my last cardiology appointment in April, I was told that I don't have any restrictions.

I'm thinking it might be a case of just overworking ... doing push-ups, holding 4 minute planks, etc ... I might just need to dial it back a notch. I just assumed that all would be normal by now. Silly me.

 

[mbeard]

Adrocktn, I am thinking about you. I have not had the surgery yet, but I am feeling less well every day. It is not far away, though, so your question about appropriate soreness at different times in your recovery is important to all of us.

 

[AdrockTN]

Adrocktn, I am thinking about you. I have not had the surgery yet, but I am feeling less well every day. It is not far away, though, so your question about appropriate soreness at different times in your recovery is important to all of us.

thanks ....

do you have surgery lined up?

 

[pellicle]

Definitely not to the level of soreness that I experienced right after surgery ...
I'm thinking it might be a case of just overworking ... doing push-ups, holding 4 minute planks, etc ... I might just need to dial it back a notch. I just assumed that all would be normal by now. Silly me.

I'll paste in what I posted on another thread, I think its related to your issue:

I'm going to say that mine equally feels discomfort (I use that word discomfort because for me pain is something which I've come to recognise as distinctly different). If you consider that there has been an amount of unnatural streching go on during the surgery that's likely to cause soft tissue damage, say like spraining an ankle rather than breaking it.

I have also had someone else say to me that the disturbances to the soft tissues can take quite some time to settle down. I have memories from my first OHS (distant ones) where I was really easily disturbed by pressure to that area (don't ask why I took up fencing ok) and to me it took from my early teens to my late teens before that settled.

When I had my second OHS it took about a year before I could do the sort of deep breathing that comes with sustained cycling at HR between 140 and 160 bpm. At first it just felt like my chest was tight.

Actually I have always found the descriptions of this to be ambiguous, for "tight ness in the chest" seems so unclear.

A couple of years after my 2nd surgery I had a fall and broke 2 ribs (wasn't that fun) and well after the 8 weeks time I was feeling difficulty in breathing in with exactly the same sort of "tightness" as I had after the OHS.

When I was riding my bike out to a place in Finland (just after I got there) I was feeling that there was some restriction in my breathing, that I couldn't get enough in, almost as if something was reaching a limit of expansion. Then (because I'm a mad bastard I pushed through that) something felt like it "tore" but without pain, like when I'm pulling things out of an fish that I'm gutting (ok, I fish too ... and I hunt, ya got me there). Soon after that the blood blister popped up (I posted about that in my thread on "post surgical feelings".

I'm of the view that there was some "adhesion" (you know, the layers of tissue {pellicle membranes} that surround and seperate muscles from the areas they lay in, and the bones they move across) which being damaged during surgery grow together (as they are not supposed to) in a scar tissue.

Since these scar tissues lack the levels of elastin (normally found in skin and such membranes) they are inflexible and need to be stretched. I'm sure that (them containing nerves) this also feels painful.

So, how does that fit with your feelings of what you're feeling?

 

[tom in MO]

I am two years out and occassionally get some pain. If I exert myself carrying something, I get sternum soreness, but it goes away in a day.

 

[AdrockTN]

I've laid low for a couple of days, just taking it easy ... seems to have subsided somewhat ... hopefully it was just a case of me overexerting myself ...

 

[Arne]

I think I'm having the same issues with sternum soreness. I've been exercising freely. I'm guessing my pain might be caused by doing push-ups and planks. I'm about 5months post op. Otherwise feeling great!

 

[epstns]

I'm not sure if I've posted in this thread, Arne, but prior to surgery (and even now, 4 years after) I was a gym rat. About 12 weeks after surgery I was formally released for whatever exercise I felt I could do. I tried push-ups, and felt a lot of chest and sternum pain. I put that thought aside, not going back to it until I was about a full year out. Then I was able to gradually start back with "knee push-ups" (using my knees rather than my toes for the lower point of contact) and light weight bench presses without pain. I just had to wait a bit longer until more things healed.

I am now 4 years out and can do 2 sets of 50 push-ups daily without chest pain. (Shoulders could be a different issue, though.) Oh, BTW, I'm now 67, so heart surgery really hasn't held me back.

 

[Odie]

I am 10 months out and I experience soreness in my right pectoral muscle when doing more than 50 push-ups. Prior to surgery I could do more than 100 push-ups in a straight set. Around the 8 week mark I did a set of one push-ups, then two the next day; with a plan of gradually increasing reps one per day. However, some days the pec-soreness was severe enough to cause me concern, so I would lay off a few days. After a few days of rest I found I could usually painlessly-hit the rep where I had previously felt pain. After 10 months I'm still not up to 100 per day, nor am I pain free at high rep counts (this includes bench pressing), but the pain doesn't concern me anymore because I'm convinced it is muscular and improving. As a general rule, if I feel pain while exercising I stop. Given the amount of trauma OHS inflicts on one's chest, laying off push-ups for a few days seems to me to be a reasonable course of action to prevent a repetitive strain injury.

 

[yotphix]

Go ahead and see your doctor about anything you are unsure about. I can tell you though, that 9 months out I was still really aware of having been 'cut in half', especially after a good chest workout. In fact, I had pretty noticeable aches for about 18 months. I still feel it sometimes, if I really exert myself, or if the weather is cold and damp. My surgery was nearly 6 years ago. It's not a problem, or an impediment to living my life, but it is a reminder of how lucky I am to be here!