It's been 23days after 5x bypass.
I have been feeling sore in both side of my chest. Is this common? Is it infection? By far wound is healing well.
My incision on my leg is good too, with some soreness felt.
Some days are good and I can walk for 15min, some days are always so grouchy and drowsy.
Any advice is much appreciated
Hi St03
It’s only just 3 weeks since your op, and you are going to feel as if you have been hit by a truck! Listen to your body it will tell you when it needs to rest if you over do it the next day you will feel it. If the pain in your chest is bothering you give your cardio nurse a ring or your GP.
Remember it’s baby steps your sternum is still knitting’s back together gently does it gentle exercise rest when you need to.
Best of luck you will get there
Pauline
Wishing you a speedy recovery
Hi, it’s nearly 4 years since my Aortic valve was replaced and bypass. So I am well recovered, just the usual meds yearly echocardiogram. That’s for my valve making sure the pressure is good.
Even though it’s 4 years I am grateful every day to the medical team that gave me my life back.
You are now on the mended heart road, they took my artery from my mammary on the left side and that was numb for a good 6 months, with the odd feeling of having an Elastoplast pulled off, told by my surgeon when they harvest the artery they sort of rip it out so the nerves have a bit of trouble sorting themselves out to join back up again and it would be ok in about 6-8 months he was spot on.
Just take it easy, gentle exercise and things will improve little by little.
Stay safe Pauline
St03 - it's very common. If you had 5 bypasses, did the surgeon use both the internal mammary arteries, left and right? I had one of the mammary arteries used and that side of my chest was numb for several months. I didn't get full feeling back until around six months. It wasn't painful but tender. You're doing well with walking - keep it up and that will contribute to reducing grouchiness! Best wishes
As said it is early days yet. I had a quadruple in 2018 and left hospital with Tramadol for breastbone pain. It was around a month before I had tapered off them.
You will have good and bad days. I found a bad day usually followed one where I had pushed a bit more. How are your blood sugars. Exercising with elevated blood sugar can be draining. If yours is ever really high (>15) you should not exercise till it has dropped. Good luck!
You are feeling sore because the body burglars use extending clamps to push your ribs apart so that they can get their hands in to attach all their gubbins and wires and pumps and stuff. When they have finished it all has to be put back in place.
Your body is still in the "What the bleeding heck happened there - have I been in a car crash or something"? A major repair exercise is taking place and your body is making you rest . It takes about 8 weeks for your sternum to knit back together and gentle exercise is the order of the day. Rest, recovery and gentle progressive exercise when you feel like it is the order of the day. iNce and easy does it.
Thanks so much
It 6 weeks since I had my 5 bypass op and I had the same experience as you but I had learn to be patient with myself as I was expecting too much. Listen to your body and what it is telling you.
Also during your period giving the Cardiac Rehab team a ring was a great help as they put my mind at ease.
Just to let you know where I am after 6 weeks I am doing 3 x 30 mins walks a day and just sorting a strengthening home made Gym circuit for my whole body with the help of Cardiac Rehab team. (The programme has just arrived in the post today)
I still have the odd ache and odd slight pain in the chest but I have now been able to stop my pain killers.
You are doing well but patience is a virtue in the true sense.
Good luck with it all
Appreciate ur kind words. I have stopped my pain killers , but experiencing bad indigestion after meals.
Did you have bad indigestion before the op ? I did and for the last 6 months I have been on 15 mg of Lansoprazole taken in the morning half an hour before food and it has cured all my indigestion throughout the day.
If you were like me I used to get out of breath just eating at the table which also cumulatively meant I didn’t sit up straight at the table. This may be another reason for your indigestion.
Cheers
Ian
Soreness is to be expected as it's really early days. As lanc2 says, your body has been manhandled so muscles, bones, etc are going to need time to repair.
My husband had a quad bypass in November 2018. You may, as Ian says, be sitting awkwardly to eat?
Hubby was given Omeprazole to sort out digestion problems and hasn't had a problem since (he's still on them - saves a fortune on Rennies!!).
Good luck. You'll start to see improvements as long as you don't rush things xxx
Appreciate Handel
Blockages After Bypass Surgery 
Breathlessness after bypass
No sleep after bypass surgery
Eating After Heart Bypass
Exercise after triple bypass.
