christine's Journal

Has anyone struggled with severe muscle pain several weeks post op from sternotomy?

I had no such pain until after week four and it got worse each week. My chest, traps, scapula. My Primary doc prescribed methylprednisolone dosepack which knocked it out on day two but my BP spiked so he said to stop it. Pain came raging back. Surgeon's RN advised to take one steroid pill a day to finish it plus a new Rx for Colchisine. Felt fine until the steroid ran out two days ago and pain is back. I am now ten weeks post op and very discouraged that this is still an issue. Otherwise, everything is pretty much normal, walking a lot when pain isn't severe and resting HR is in the 70's.

Anyone else experience this?

Back in the hospital for the past two days after my MV repair on 3/5. On Monday night my resting HR shot up to 130's and stayed there. Went to the ER thinking it was Afib but I was in sinus rhythm. No SOB or pain. Turned out to be a small blood clot in my lung. I'm on a heparin drip and hoping to go home tomorrow.

Doctors are pretty baffled as they say this is unusual for someone who has no prior clot history and has been active since surgery.

If you had MV repair, were you sent home on newly prescribed blood thinners, or only aspirin?

Don't ignore a suddenly high HR, it's not always Afib!

MV repair via sternotomy with Dr. Kevin Accola at AdventHealth Orlando on 3/5 was a success and I finally got discharged yesterday (Monday). The first night in ICU I went into AFib but the external pacer got me back into rhythm pretty quickly. Then my BP and HR were too low so they gave me lots of fluids which did the trick but put 12 pounds on me, causing my right lung to have fluid build up. They drained it and then came Lasix to eliminate the fluids, which brought down my potassium levels. The end result is it may have added a couple of days to my stay but I felt so cared for and lucky to have come through everything well.
I do remember waking up on the vent and trying desperately to tell my husband I felt SOB and my throat hurt. I kept writing AIR on his hand with my fingers and they thought I meant I was warm!
The hardest part for me is the loss of appetite. I only had a few bites of food the first three days.I got some appetite back yesterday but not much. I'm walking 3x a day, a bit more each day and it feels great. I generally feel great until about 3pm, then feel like someone slipped me a sedative😃.
In the hospital I was on muscle relaxers, Tylenol and dilaudid for pain but dropped dilaudid after two days. I was sent home with the muscle relaxers and Tylenol, plus the last couple of doses of steroid and aspirin. I am off the beta blockers after 14 years! Some muscle pain in back, shoulders and neck but incision/bone pain is pretty minor, mostly when cough or getting in and out of bed.
Overall, the entire experience was not as bad as I imagined it to be. Having always been in great health otherwise and never having had surgery before, I was expecting a much scarier experience.
Reading all of your experiences and recommendations helped tremendously! Thanks to Adam for his dedication to this site, it is truly invaluable.

Just completed my pre admission testing for MV repair surgery tomorrow. Feeling very anxious but I'm sure it would be much worse if I didn't have all of the great info and personal experiences on this site. Thank you!

I had my heart cath today, so this is getting real now. I was a bit disappointed that they went through my groin instead of wrist, which was the initial plan. Don't know what changed, they just told me that the Dr. wants to go through the groin. Afterwards, he stated the pressures are more accurate that way. Anyone else heard of this reasoning? I'm relieved that it's behind me now and all was normal. Now to wait for surgery.

Hi everyone, I'm a new member and would like to know if anyone in the group had their Mitral Valve Repair done at Advent Health in Orlando - Dr. Accola (OHS approach) or at Sarasota Memorial Hospital - Dr. Jonathan Hoffberger (minimally invasive thoracotomy)?  
I'm struggling a bit trying to determine which approach is safest with higher rate of repair vs. replacement. I know everyone's valve condition is different but curious about these two hospitals in particular. Thank you!