Fractured Rib and 3 week check up

[Megan]

hey all. so yesterday i went to the cardio for a full check up. its been 3 weeks since the op. had echo, xray,ekg and blood. the dr at first said I should be weaning off the pain meds now but then when the xray came back she said oops! ok you have a good excuse for being on the pain meds still as it turns out i have a fractured 9th rib from the surgery and being opened up too rough! so at least i know its not in my head! good news is that the heart is functioning great and now just need a few more weeks to get over the insults! the only thing i forgot to ask is how could they have missed this in the hospital when they took an xray every morning for a week at 430 AM! im kinda pissed about that!

 

[MissMelis]

Well! Egg on SOMEONE'S face now isn't there?!
Glad you got to the bottom of something. Broken rib - ouch!
Anything they can do about it, or do you just have to grin and bear it?

Glad to hear that things are great on the heart side though

 

[netmiff]

it must be good to know the reason for the pain, even if it meant they were a bit brutal with you. Happy that the heart is good, though! Gues this is what they mean by colateral damage

 

[hall]

A broken rib? Ouch! So sorry, that has to hurt. Hope it heals fast!

 

[jax]

no wonder you are in so much pain megan. take those pain meds as long as you need to and i hope that your rib heals fast. i know what you mean about the xrays in the middle of the night. they came to do mine at around 2:30 every morning. i was so thankful just to get home so i wouldn't be woke up every hour or 2.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

You may want to make sure your Surgeon is aware of the Broken Rib, and the Hospital Administration as well.

 

[Megan]

thanks all- good idea about letting surgeon know. infact ive started a laundry list of 'ways to Improve" for them as well-not sure if ill send it but a bunch of little things have been botheringme so maybe i just will! granted i dont mind the broken rib since they were saving my life and all but still- theres always room for improvement!

 

[Nancy]

It's bad enough that the rib was broken, but I guess that it can happen, they do spread the ribs wide.

However, the even worse thing was that you weren't informed about it. THAT is egregious. And it should be reported to your state authorities, and hospital administration, and after you do that, tell the surgeon.

Sounds like they were hoping that the pain you were experiencing from that would be rolled into one big ball of recovering from heart surgery and that you wouldn't notice the difference, and they could hide it that way.

That's BAD!

 

[john79t]

I have had broken ribs in the past. Nothing you can do but wait for them to heal. Hard to put a cast on a rib.

 

[twinmaker]

I wonder if this might be more common than we think. After my first OHS back in the dark ages (1974), I noticed a lump right under my underarm. I freaked out thinking I had a lump in my breast! I went into the cardio's office in a panic. They did an x-ray and believe it or not, it was a broken rib. This was three weeks after surgery! I also had many x-rays during those three weeks and couldn't see how they missed it. Steve was in the army at the time and my surgery was done in an army hospital. Uncle Sam doesn't want to hear complaints. Can you sue the government? I hope the pain starts to leave soon. Hang in there! LINDA