Robert's Journal

Ellen Higgs  Hi Robert, I can only speak from an observation stand point since it was my husband who went through the surgery.  It took him a few months to feel comfortable on his stomach.  His surgery was 9/30/22 and I can even say that it’s just been recently he’s been sleeping back on his stomach.  I also know when he goes to stand, after sitting for a bit, he stretches out his chest as though it’s tight.   I hope this helps.

Rose Madura  I would say it was about 3-6 months before I didn't feel any pain. Most of my pain was in my shoulder/collar bone area, not sternum. Hang in there. It will get better.

Leona Resch  Hi Robert! I’m 7 weeks post SAVR and have been experiencing the same thing! My muscles along my stetnum are hurting more and my arm feels sore and stiff. And my incision feels tighter when I first get up from sitting until I’m up and moving around. I’m thinking as you feel better and start to move around more normally, you stretch things and use muscles that haven’t been used in quite awhile. I’ve heard others say that sometimes you hurt more before it gets better due to all the increased movement. 

Greg Lewis  Hi Robert!  I just talked to my Cardiologist about that same thing. I have been recovering 19 mos now. Still have pectoral pain, and rib pains. It took me many months before laying on my side. But it has mostly got better, but it comes and goes.My Cardiologist says there was a lot of trauma that happened during the second surgery, and that few days, in general.
So I think it depends a lot on what happened during surgery, and how much trauma your cartilage had. I am told by all my doctors and physio, that this is now my cartilage that has the, likely ongoing problem.
But I am going for special scans, to see that the sternal wires have not moved, and how things healed. So, trying to nail down the source of the pain, and see if it can be fixed.
But...you are only 2 Mos. Out. Give it time. You know that it takes a normal surgery a year, or so to fully heal. Major problems can triple that. Or so physio tells me. 
Keep it stretched out. Walk straight. Get a massage on it. I wouldn't lay on my stomach until it is comfortable.  That could really aggravate  it. 
Anyway, good luck with it!

Robert Miller  Is it "just" pain or do you hear noises coming from your chest? If you hear noises then you really have to get this checked out. Even if you don't hear noises I would let the surgeon know. (S)he might order a chest x-ray or CT (just make sure you get it done at a 3rd party and not the hospital unless you don't mind paying 5x more).


As for my experience, while I didn't really need any pain killers after both surgeries I definitely did feel that something was done to my chest (tensions and my scare itched). After the first surgery I had constant feelings of pins poking me at one particular spot on the right side. It never went away until my second surgery some 9 months later. Right now, 8 weeks after my second surgery, I have some "tension" at the very top of my chest.  It's the worst when I get up in the morning but also when I lie down at night. During the day I don't feel it much unless I move stuff around. I like to sleep on my side. The first month I slept on my back and slightly angling my body and changing to laying fully on my back. After that I started sleeping on the side but even after 8 weeks I can feel the tension. The pain spots can move over time but you probably will feel them for quite a few months. But again, discuss with your surgeon just to be sure.


Btw, I had my second surgery mid December and overdid it a bit taking down the Christmas lights from the roof, putting away all the stuff I had outside, etc. The next day my chest hurt and a funny crackling noise came from the chest  when I was breathing. The cardiologist ordered an x-ray. Besides checking for fluid on the lungs he was looking at the wires holding the chest together. No broken wires. He said to better look at any shifting I would need a CT scan which we didn't do. Even now 8 weeks after surgery I can feel my chest more when I do a lot of physical work (pulling weeds for an hour of so, moving around ladders, etc). So take it easy. 

Bradley Dunn  I think each person is different. All the pain i had was between my ears... I only took Tylenol after leaving the hospital.

Lilly Black  Robert, for me it took 2 years! meaning, with movement, it still hurt sometimes. Now after 8 years, I have no more pain. It takes time. I used an infrared healing lamp, and it helped tremendously, and felt good! good luck!

Rose Madura  Hi Robert. Yes, I did have some collar bone and shoulder pain. I don't know how long your surgery was but mine was 7 hours and they told me it was most likely from being in one position for that entire time.  I took Tylenol for it. Eventually it went way and I hope yours does as well.

Richard Munson  I noticed a lot of shoulder pain after surgery and was told it was from keeping it in a restrained awkward position for a long period of time during the procedure. I think it was raised but being asleep i have no recall. It was a few hours of course as most ohs is. It is much better after 2 years but never returned to pre surgery status. I also have arthritis in my shoulders no doubt a contributing factor

Thomas Tomlinson  I am 6 weeks post op tomorrow and I was having a lot of neck/occipital pain that seemed to be coming from the collarbone. I started physical therapy for it a couple of weeks ago and when they were taking range of motion measurements they had me look up and I realized how tight my neck muscles were in the front, so they had me start stretching them by doing a cervical extension stretch and also a seated trapezius stretch. Since I started doing these, things have gotten much better. It's worth a shot

Greg Lewis  Everything from your waist up, is likely effected in some way. I had 2 heart surgeries in 3 days, with my chest open for that time. Pretty much everything hurt at some point. I am 1.5 yrs out, and they tell me it could take 3 yrs to recover. I still have chest wall pain, and abdominal pain. You are only 4 weeks out so some things could take a long time. Your collarbone can take a real hit, and could take a long time to heal all the parts.But my advice would be to get a good massage therapist, and physiotherapist. They can give you a mobility/stretching routine to do. You really need to be doing this. Otherwise your body can heal wrong. All hunched over, bringing itself inwards to protect itself, and it will heal wrong. (Not my words ) 
Ask your doctor. About the collarbone too. 

Klara Čičić  I had soulder pain, but not collarbone. Sometimes they put us in weird position during surgery. Try talking to your PCP to make some diagnostic to make sure everything is in it's place :) good luck

Andrew Dial  I would say yes I did. After the first 3 days, once I could kinda sorta do my own thing, I wanted OUT! I had this really weird smell throughout my entire room/bathroom. It was wierd. Not sure if it was whatever was in my body that was coming out thru my pores or what… but I was super emotional, and wanted out. I told them I would do whatever I needed to asap to get out. 

Robert Miller  Both hospitals I was in offered mental and other services. The same applies for my insurance post-surgery. You might consider contacting them, though you seem to do better.
I didn't have any such feelings for both my surgeries. I do recall having had similar feelings when in military service. Just the fact that I had to stay within the relatively small compound agitated me, even when I didn't have any particular plan to go somewhere. I think the best you can do is distract yourself with something you like to do like reading a book, do some online education courses, etc. 

Greg Lewis  Hey Robert! I definitely have had some mental issues this year, and in the hospital too. 
I was told it was the anesthetic that causes some of it, and, for me it could take a year to go away. When I first got out, I would just cry for no reason. Had a real hard time. But my surgery resulted in almost a week of unconsciousness. It has pretty much gone away now. Still feel a bit off, but am getting used to it. 
So hang in there! It should get better. I would recommend seeing the mental health specialist at the hospital, though. I did, and it helped me understand what was going on, with me.
Good luck! 

Richard Munson  Wow, i had them pre surgery but not post. I was so happy to just wake up i never asked how the surgery went till the surgeon came by to visit. He said a ton of stuff that all went in one ear and out the other. 

Marie Myers  I was emotional during the post-op period. I could cry for no reason at all, which is not normally “me”. I think it is the body’s reaction to a huge surgery. It does take time for physical and emotional healing. Be patient with yourself; you have been through a lot!

Brady Busch  Probably while in the ICU,a few nights,there were some visual hallucinations accompanied by auditory a little.I remember thinking,this is better than any Frank Zappa video.

Greg Lewis  Brady, I had colored dragons on the wall. The nurse asked if they were friendly. I said, so far! I was certain it was Chinese propaganda loaded into the pill they gave me to sleep. 😂

Deena Z  Brady - what a positive spin you had. Greg- that is one hilarious RN. Hope it helped you at that moment.

Robert, the surgery and recovery is mind blowing and intense in so many ways. Give yourself a break during "re-entry". Your life was just saved and body "assaulted". You have LOTS of company.

Rita Savelis  I hear you Robert. Intensive care was pretty intense. I was there for 5 days and thought my psyche would not survive. Morphine can contribute to making one feel crazy. Even when you know the visions are from morphine, they still seem real. And just the awful discomfort of post surgery, along with the heavy anasthesia one has recently been on. I felt better once I left intensive care (I was in hospital for 3 weeks) but in general post-surgery  was a trauma on my emotional well being. 5 months after surgery when I was back home and back at work I fell into a depression which lasted for about 7 months. After all that physical trauma, it was time to have emotional trauma. Feeling down is so very very common, but not spoken about that much.  I wrote long posts about ICU and hospital and depression which helped me to make sense of it. Take care. Stay vocal about all that you are feeling. It's all common, just not spoken about.

Robert Stebbins  Thank you so much everyone. It is comforting to know I'm not alone in having some serious mental health after effects. I didn't see much written about it when doing my pre-surgery research so I felt kind of alone with it after surgery.

Rita Savelis  Robert, Sadly there is still a lot of stigma around mental health and talking about mental health. Alhough more than half of those who go through heart surgery will suffer from depression, even cardiologists don't bring it up. So one has to be vocal, vocal, vocal. As far as ICU goes - how anyone survives that without going wacko for a few days/weeks is a mystery to me. I thought my psyche might break in there. Hope you are feeling better and thanks for bringing up a subject that needs to be talked about more.