Shoulder pain

[Bristol_444]

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all keeping well in this trying time.

My Dad had stents fitted just before lockdown and has had a turbulent recovery. He started with chest pain which seems to have been solved with medication adjustment but has since had a flare up of an old knee injury, just as this was getting better he has developed an almost unbearable pain in his shoulder. He can barely keep his head up and can only sit up right for a few minutes. He has been to the doctors and a&e but they have just said he might need physiotherapy at some point and given him more pain killers.

I might be over thinking this but could the pain be related to the stents settling in? Has anyone else experienced a recurrence of injury’s or has become more accident prone after surgery?

Like I said, I might be overthinking this, it might just be unfortunate timing but I thought I would ask on the off chance.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

Best wishes

Louise

[OneCrow]

I have suffered shoulder pain since the stent was fitted but am a firm believer that this is caused by the statins. They reduced the dose eventually and the pain is less but very much still there.

I go with the theory that I went through months of chest pains and joint pains and not once did it become a cardio event and not once did the experts think it was either. It's not easy (or the right thing to do) to dismiss any issues, but I do think that the meds create many negative issues.

I think they put me off and downplayed it until they were confident long enough had passed and I was doing okay, months in fact. Only then was it properly discussed and my statins changed, which proved worse, then lowered in dose, which helped. As I say, the lower dose helps but the shoulder pains remain.

[Bristol_444 in reply to OneCrow]

Thank you so much for your reply, I’m sorry to hear you still have pain. My Dad is going to speak to his doctor again today so hopefully they can change his meds about and get it settled down. They have also recommended physiotherapy which we might try.

If we find any improvement I will pass it on. I hope your pain reduces soon.

Thanks again

[Hidden]

I was diagnosed with non symptomatic heart failure in jan 2019 & saw a cardiologist six months later. He suggested an angiogram which showed a slight furring of an artery & was told I should have a stent passed on ‘just in case’.

I had that n the October and started to get stabbing pains in the right side of the chest. After by VT they checked the stent and said it was fine and the stabbing pain unknown though with the icd/pacemaker I have stabbing pains in both sides of the chest. The heart failure nurse said stabbing pains are ok as just muscular. I don’t take pain killers for that as pain so random.

I hope your dad’s pain disappears soon.

[Electricbike]

Hi Bristol_444,

I had HA and 1 stent in May 2019, and shortly after had left shoulder pain which got worse. After some panicky A&E and GP visits decided it wasn't heart related and eventually found it was frozen shoulder. The consultant said there was a "weak connection" between cardiac surgery and frozen shoulder. I have since found out about someone else with exactly the same issue. Probably not something your dad has but an example of the odd things that can happen.

Cheers

[Thanksnhs in reply to Electricbike]

When I got my icd fitted I got a frozen shoulder it was agony for months, but with physio and an injection it totally cleared up

[Bristol_444 in reply to Electricbike]

Thank you for your reply, I’m glad you’re feeling better. How funny that the two can sometimes be connected. I will make sure he asks his doctor about this. There seems to be lots of little suprises that come with heart surgery that we wernt expecting!

[StupidDrugs]

Hello! I've had terrible shoulder pain since my MI and first stent last July. Moreover, since then and despite what my cardiologist says, unlike previous angiograms I can now feel the catheter going around my shoulder and the sensation of him pulling it back out is awful. I was convinced most of the major shoulder (and minor knee, back and chest) sensitivity and discomfort was a product of taking Ticagrelor because this is the only new drug that I was prescribed after my MI that I was still taking (stopped Rampiril and Bisoprolol).

However, I had also switched to Rosuvastatin a month or so before my MI and I remember coming back from a trip away, a couple of weeks before the MI, with awful pain in both my knees that I have never suffered before. Long story short, though I thought I was better on Rosuvastatin, I believe it has made all my joints extremely sensitive and caused a lot of old sporting knocks and injuries to flare up, particularly in my right shoulder. Having x-ray next week on it but, long term, if these pains and sensitivity don't disappear when I end my DAPT, the Rosuvastatin is going!