That tight feeling ickie thump!

[jake]

Ok, so staying consistent with my need to get all shook up about a new thing every week, my question at week #9 is:

When does that weird tight feeling in your incision start feeling normal? When I put my hands behind my head and straighten up it feels like that scar is a rubber band and wants to pull me back. It’s a most uncomfortable feeling, not really painful, but its just like an ickie feeling! I also get kinds prickly feelings near the boarder of the incision site. Almost as if it’s a sharp poking sensation in certain positions.

Anyway, not really freaking out about it, just kind of wirded out a bit.

I can’t seem to get used to that occasional heart pounding sensation either. Sometimes it feels like my heart is going to bust out of my chest! LOL!!!

Any input from you veteran OHS'ers? I would love to hear your feedback.

 

[Greg a]

Everything is still trying to find the way home .... all of your muscles and skin has been handed a BIG INSULT and it takes time to get over it just look at some omages of OHS and you will see that when they use rib spreaders THEY USE RIB SPREADERS that pull and stretch everything and thankfully it does NOT all just snap back six months and most of that feeling will be a memory

Does the heart pounding occur at any partiicular time or in any special position .....today still if I lay on my left side I awake with the POUNDING

 

[Michelle D]

I think it took a while. I just had to try straightening it out to see if it still feels that way, and I'm at 6 1/2 months. The skin doesn't feel tight but sometimes my sternum still bothers me if I touch it. Not bad or anything.

 

[epstns]

I'm not sure about heart surgery (mine is about a month out there in the future) but in previous surgery it seemed that the pulling sensation just sort of gradually lessened. I remember lying in bed and gently trying to stretch and straighten out, going as far as I could with little or no discomfort. It seemed that a couple of weeks (could be longer - that was over 40 years ago) of the gentle stretching helped a lot. Of course, there was no skeletal involvement that time.

 

[jake]

Hey Greg:

When I take a deep breath, I can feel that thumping all throughout my upper torso. When I lay down at night it’s pretty pronounced as well. They told me it might be like this but you never really get it until it happens.

Funny thing is that my blood pressure has never been so under control as it has been post OHS and that kettle drum is still pounding! I think they forgot to put some of my insulation back in.

 

[Mentu]

Jake, during those early weeks, I had a really wild thumping heart beat. I had never been able to find my pulse at my wrist easily but after the AVR it was suddenly no problem. It never made me feel bad the way palpitations did before surgery and the beta-blocker did seem to help normalize it. Even now, it takes only a second to find my pulse although I no longer feel that very strong beat in my chest. Also, somewhere around 9 months my chest started feeling normal. It can take awhile for the nerves and muscles to recover from being traumatized but it will happen.

Larry