Numb Hands And Feet After Heart Surgery
Blog Topics: Heart Surgery Recovery; Effects Of Heart Surgery; Patient Complications; Numb Hands; Numb Feet; Ibuprofen; Cardiac Rehab
Every once in a while, I receive an email that triggers a distinct memory from my heart surgery recovery. As you may have read in my story, I had a double heart valve replacement at the age of thirty-three in Los Angeles by Dr. Vaughn Starnes at USC.
Following my heart valve surgery, I experienced some challenges with my body temperature. I write about this in my book, The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery.
Sometimes I would have severe nightsweats… Especially the first few nights following surgery. At other times, I would find myself struggling to stay warm - almost to the point where I had numb hands and feet after heart surgery.
Amongst the pain of a split sternum, this was a subtle issue. However, my numb hands and feet after heart surgery continued for the first eight weeks following surgery.
One day at my cardiac rehab center, I asked one of the cardiac nurses, “Are my hands and feet going to be numb from now on?”
Donna looked over at me and said, “Are you taking Ibuprofen?”
I nodded my head up and down, and said “Yes!” as I peddled round-and-round on the stationary bike.
“How many?” Donna furthered her inquiry.
“About twelve a day,” I responded as I huffed and puffed on the bike.
“Well. There you have it!” Donna said.
Donna went on to tell me that heavy intake of Ibuprofen can alter body temperature. Sure enough, as the pain from my surgery decreased, so did my intake of Ibuprofen.
Guess what?
So did my numb hands and feet after heart surgery! 
Keep on tickin!
About The Author: Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.
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January 12th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I had a quadruple bypass 10 weeks ago. The last two fingers on my right hand are numb as is the small finger on my left hand. I cannot bring the middle fingers of my right hand to touch each other, no matter how hard I concentrate. My surgeon said this is not uncommon, but I have had no improvement since my surgery. My concern is that the injury might be permanent.
April 20th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I have just had double valve replacement surgery … almost a month now.
I am 66 years old and experience the same numbness, sweats and temperature changes. I don’t take ibuprofen, though. I do, however, take the generic equivilent of DARVOCET. I am glad to hear that this disappears over time.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
My friend just had heart valve replacement surgery about five weeks ago, and is recovering pretty well, but he experienced numbness in his right hand for the first time yesterday, for varying periods of time and intensity about once every hour, hence my searching for answers to this concern.