post surgical pain

[mile high]

Good morning,

My AVR was 5 years ago. During the immediate (the first 3 to 4 months) post surgical recovery time the discomfort/pain I felt was not in a specific place. What i felt was an overall body of not feeling well. Using tylenol took care of that feeling of discomfort.

5 years later i still have that same feeling of discomfort when i do certain physical activities. An example is yesterday i spent the afternoon cleaning out leafs from the gutters of our house and raked and bagged leaves around our home.

During the night i partially woke up not feeling well and recognized the discomfort as that just like post surgery, a general overall feeling of discomfort. I took two tylenol, went back to sleep and woke up with the discomfort feeling gone.

I have experienced this same overall discomfort feeling many times since surgery, all surrounding some physical activity. As to my physical health, i exercise regularly both cardio and some free weights, i am not overweight and generally in very good physical condition. I am able to do anything i want to physically.

My question is two fold:

1. What did others experience post surgery in terms of pain and discomfort? was it a general overall feeling or a specific area?

2. Do others who had the overall feeling of discomfort still experience this today? Any thoughts about the source of this discomfort and what could be done, like some specific exercises?

Thanks

Mile High

 

[WayneGM]

Even since OHS (21 months ago), I get muscular aches and pains mainly around the neck, shoulders, and back area. Typically its after hard physical labour or when there is severe weather changes, especially cold and damp. When its bad, I take a couple of Tylonol ES or Arthristis Formula.

My incision is also tender and itchy, even the bullet holes from the tubes, especially if I get hot and sweaty. If anything accidently hit my main incision, it's really quite painful (really stings) but just momentarily.

 

[Magic8Ball]

Kinda similar, i just felt old and creaky, like someone had stolen all the pads from between my bones and swapped my ligaments for matchsticks.

i was getting pains in neck, shoulders, middle back, lower back basically all over.

I've now been seeing a chiropracter for a couple of months and i feel way way better...

Now i know everyone has different views of chiropracters and i was a total sceptic before i went but i had a personal recommendation from another sceptic and after visiting the improvement has been imense.

(In my humble opinion and in no way based on any medical knowledge) when you think about it, OHS involves a lot of buggering around with your ribcage and this in turn affects other areas of your body....i was having to rise and sit resting my hands on my knees for support.

One caveat on the above, i'm seeing a chiropracter that uses a small gun to fire precise shots/hits into my skeleton not one of those who jumps up and down on you until you make a cracking noise. She also sent me for a full upper torso xray from my hips to forehead so she could examine my skeleton before she did anything.

If you've tried everything else this may be worth a shot...