Comments on: “Sensitive Keloid Scars? Sternal Wire Bumps?” Asks Josh

By: Bre

Bre — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:18:04 +0000

I recently had an aortic ascending graft done too and at the very top of my scar I have a resided bump too, any suggestions on what it could be or how to get rid of it?

By: marsha

marsha — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:04:10 +0000

hi jen thanks for the info my neuro says my muscle enzymes are to high and i am not strong enough now to even consider having my sternal wires removed he also did mention about nerve damage also thanks keep in touch

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:24:54 +0000

My sternal wires did not hurt from my bra for everyday wear. However I believe my pain came from wearing sports bras and lots of excerising(jogging burpees etc) that pushed my skin against the wires and pulled the wire up so it was sticking out and caused a golfball size abcess. It felt like I was being sliced from the inside and was over a period of 18 months of excerising. From time to time, it was so painful I had to stop in the middle of working out. I though it was breaking threw scar tissue or something.
You could have nerve damage that could be causing your pain. I hope you are feeling better soon. It is aweful having a pain that you can’t get rid of!! Hope it sudsides soon!! Feel Better!

By: marsha

marsha — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:05:53 +0000

hi this is for the ladies have any of you had any problem wearing bras this causes so much pain and irritates my keloid scar also does anyone have pain under your breasts i had a thymectomy 1-2011 i have sternal wire as well the left side of my chest is so painful please help

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 02:03:31 +0000

Hi, I wrote on this blog 12/10/10. I had my sternal wires removed the end of december 2010! It is now August, I am feeling so much better and never realized how much discomfort they were causing in my day to day life! I am feeling so much better and hope this finds you all well too!!! I thnk it was worth having the wires removed. In my case, one had broken and another had a golfball size abcess around the wire that was sticking up! That was the one that was causing all my pain. I am living my life to the fullest and feeling great!

God Bless and thanks for sharing your stories!!
Jen

By: Lili

Lili — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:01:31 +0000

Hello,

My husband is going into surgery tomorrow for some external wire removal.

He had open chest surgery about 12 years ago and for the past year he had been complaining about pain in his chest and his shoulders. He went on a diet and lost close to 60 pounds, we then started noticing a lump right over the top of his scar…we also thought it was a pimple so we left it alone…2 months later while working out he felt something pop and this thing we thought was a pimple started to turn green. He finally went to the doctor and they took some x-rays that showed that it was in fact sternal wire. Like I said he has surgery scheduled for tomorrow and we are hoping and praying that everything goes well. It has definitely helped to read all of your posts to have some sort of idea of how this is going to go.

Thanks everyone for the information.

Lili

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:36:11 +0000

Hi, I had triple bypass 2 1/2 years ago. It took me a year to feel well enough to get back to regular life and start excerising. As I excercised over the past 18 months I have felt burning, tingling, feeling like I was being stabbed with tiny knives all across my chest. Sometimes worse then others until a month ago. I was doing pushups and something “popped”. I crumbled into a ball to let the pain subside. My scar swelled up and was burning. I now can’t use my arms to reach out or lift anything with out the buning, kniving feeling. I went to see my Surgeon and he put me on pain meds and I went for xrays and catscan. I had broken one of my wires and another wire is sticking up and out! I feel like I am being sliced inside on my chest. I also have an area that has not healed properly near the broken wire so it may possibily need to have a plate put over it. My surgeon gave me choices. to remove all wires, to remove the wire that is sticking up, or wait 3 months to see if the pain goes away. I need my life back. I have young children, I need to get back to my life! I have read all the other replies that have been posted. Thanks for posting your experiences. It is helpful to know I am not imaging this pain and that I am not alone in this. I am sorry that you all have had to go through all that you have had to go through! I am so happy you are all well and that technology is there to help us live full lives! I will call my surgeon tomorrow and schedule my surgery to have the wires removed. I am hoping to be feeling better soon! I hope you all are feeling better and living life to the fullest!

By: SkyKing

SkyKing — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:04:17 +0000

I am 5 weeks out of surgery (6XCABG plus Pace maker) and like you Josh, have keloid thing going on in the same place, gonna see the surgeon in 2 days… Im half expecting him to remove the cable there because it initially gave me problems in my incision. The staff was nervous about an infection so they put a PICC line in my bicep and gave me (at home with wife doing it) 1 hour of HEAVY antibiotics through IV, twice per day. Otherwise, Im doing pretty well.

I do experience light headedness lately too… Will have to discuss this with the docs too

Good luck Josh, Im VERY curious to see how they handle yours and will update on mine

By: Bhavika

Bhavika — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:49:20 +0000

H Josh, i had open heart surgery for closure of ASD three years ago, but soon after my scar turned keloid. So i visited a dermatologist who gave me steroid injections..this flattened my scar however left me with bumps wthich I later found out were my sternal wires. I since had these removed which was a simple procedure..but I was told it wasn’t a common procedure after heart surgery – only done if wires were troublesome. I still have a keloid scar, but I guess this is something I’ll have to live with.

By: Elizabeth's mom

Elizabeth's mom — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:31:12 +0000

My daughter, Liz, who is now 19 had two open heart surgeries when she was much younger to repair a VSD and then a floppy piece of muscle in her heart. The second surgery happened when she was five- and in the first grade while they were practicing “stop, drop, and roll”, her wire protruded out of the skin. She had several of the wires removed then. She is very skinny and the wires have still been moving and giving her problems. She now feels some pain and we went and had an x-ray yesterday. One of the wires is open and feels like it is sticking out or into her. We don’t know what to do about this- Her keloid scar is till sensitive.