Hi all,
I know all the material says that the Sternum take anything from 6 weeks to three months to fix and repair.
But how was your journey?
Im nearly 5 week post op. And all I feel it's tightness and a feeling of the sternum feeling 'stuck'. I presume this is just the bone fixing but the feeling is more discomfort than pain. How long does this feeling last and when do you stop noticing the discomfort as much...
thanks
Hi. I was able to sleep on my side at about the 2 month point. I didn’t lift shopping bags etc until at least 4/5 months. It wasn’t because my sternum wasn’t repaired but because I had no strength. I’d spent 2 months in hospital and had completely deconditioned. . I was told at cardiac rehab that my sternum would have been fixed at 3 months. I started cardiac rehab about 5 months after my surgery and was lifting weights etc without problem. I did have 2 open heart surgeries one after the other so I’ve probably taken much longer to recover than other people. My first sternotomy wasn’t even healed before I needed a re-do. I’m now 7 1/2 months since my most recent surgery and my sternum feels completely healed. My scaring isn’t great as it’s red and wide but it’s a small price to pay for being alive. I don’t get any pain in my chest anymore and don’t even think about my ribs. I hope you are doing ok after your surgery. Best wishes.
Wow. Sounds like you really went through it. I'm glad you are on the road to recovery now and able to do more. Thank you for sharing
Hi. I was just unlucky but things are much better now, thanks. 5 weeks is very early and if you are used to being active you are probably finding it very frustrating to pace yourself. At first I did have the tightness and some clicking but it went after the first couple of months. If you are worried you should check with your gp but if your sternum wasn’t healing properly you would know probably about it, especially if it was unstable. After my first one I had wound breakdown and developed holes where I could see the deep surgical stitches inside. Fortunately the wires were ok and once the infection healed things were much better. As long as yours appears intact with no sign of wound breakdown or any grating or clicking from the wires you should be fine. 😊
After having double heart bypass in March 2021 there was no rehab available so had none, it was 6 months Before I saw a cardio consultant, I was lucky and didn't have any problems, just unfortunate that I had my HA in lockdown. Thanks to the excellent care and medical no how at Liverpool Heart and Chest hospital who I will always be thankful to.
To anyone who has had open heart surgery, keep doing your rehab! There are clear silicone gel sheets available which you put over the healed scar-it sticks by itself-removing it to wash it each day and reapplying and eventually it flattens and helps the scar to fade. Amazon or other pharmacies sell it.
Hello,
Like any broken bone it takes time for us to heal, 8-10 weeks with no arms above our heads no lifting anything heavier than half a kettle of water and no pushing or pulling movements.
I started cardio rehab at 7 weeks, didn’t have a lot of discomfort from my sternum but as well as Aortic valve replaced I had bypass and they harvested it from my mammary artery. I got the feeling that someone had pulled an Elastoplast off, on my left hand side of my chest. Told by my surgeon that it was the nerve endings trying to get together again and not quite making it! He said they would sort themselves out after about 18 months and he was right on the money.
5 weeks is very soon since your surgery, it takes time for your bones to heal.
Wishing you a great recovery
Pauline
Thanks Pauline, I know 5 weeks is early but I'm just wondering if anyone else had this tight/discomfort feelings and if so how long did it last. It's probably the bit that's the most irritating for me haha
Just had to reply to you Pauline. I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone on here who has had a bypass with it harvested from the mammary gland. I did as well as aortic valve replaced. Anyway they are clever surgeons aren’t they? Apart from a bleed the evening of surgery, when I had to go back into theatre and be opened up again, I am now just past 3 year anniversary from op, and my cardiologist saw me a few weeks ago, very pleased and doesn’t want to see me for 2 years. How good is that?
There is one downer , post surgery I had a wound infection, and the strong antibiotic they prescribed had a 1 in can’t remember the % chance of getting a torn Achilles’ tendon, and I was the unlucky one. It wasn’t diagnosed for 3 months, so nothing could be done. Anyway one has to adjust or moan for ever! Just my limping is not good, you can’t heel raise when that tendon disabled.
Life goes on, and I had a lovely week in Menorca in June with my son and daughter.
Another downer, dislocated L hip 4 times, on list for revision ASAP ! Well it’s take each day as it comes, trying to be positive, though hard at times.
Best wishes to you Pauline, Marigold
Afternoon marigold
It’s the mammary artery that was harvested. While they have the chest open it’s easy for them to take that one means I have no other scars.
You are certainly going through it at the moment I have my fingers crossed for an early appointment.
Lovely that you had a good week away.
Take good care
Pauline
For me after about two weeks nothing really although issues, with my ulnar nerve issues from my shoulder to my rwo smallest fingers continued over three months. Are you doing the breathing exercises regularly and properly as besides helping your lungs recover they help the ribs. I only really started increasing my "weight limit" for lifting after three months and then gradually as I have met somebody with an unstable sternum and trust me you do not want to go there. Sorry I cannot be more help.
All replies are good replies. I was only given one breathing exercise which I do. But yes I don't want an unstable sternum! So trying to fact find to see if this tightness is something to worry about.
Luckily I got a doctors appointment and cardio rehab assessment next week so will bring it up then
I actually still had sternum pains that I remember 7 or 8 months after the op. For instance if I tried to push something heavy. We all heal differently and I just applied the ‘if it hurts, don’t do it’. Saying that I was left on my own very early on after the opp and had to do everything myself so I probably slowed down my own healing.
After a quarduple heart bypass I was thrown out of the hospital after 4 days. Fortunately I had a very supportive wife. Clearly there is a need for many patients to move from the high care beds into something more low key but where there is still a nurse and medical attention.
However with the demise of cottage hospitals, these low key beds are no longer available so we get the so called bed blockers taking up space in the higher value medical beds and thereby stopping people coming in at the top of the chain for operations, as there is nowhere next down the chain for them to move into.
Doctors and nurses seem baffled at this refusal of the powers that be to recognise that 'community' care in your own home after a serious operation is not an option for many
it's better to be at home and moving around. in hospital people tend to lye in bed and not be mobile which means daily injections and it's isually noisey so sleep and rest isn't great and food is bad and filled with unhealty oil and adatives and also higher tisk of infection
The food in the hospital was really bad. There was a bakers at the hotel entrance and the Healthiest item was a double chocolate Doughnut which was being sold at 2 for the price of 1!
The food was VERY traditional and full of fat and it was impossible to eat well.
I know. They fix your heart and then try to kill you again with the unhealthy food - lol
The first thought that entered my head was "who told you 6 weeks!" I was told to pick up no more than a kettle full of water for 13 weeks. At 13 weeks I was x-rayed, medically checked out and met with my surgeon who told me all was okay and I could start to get back towards where I was pre-op. This made sense and slowly I increased my weight capacity starting with a small backpack on small hills. At six months post-op I was back to full capacity climbing hills in the Scottish Southern Uplands. I have never had any issues other than some muscular aches which slowly receded.
Pushing things can set you back.... the worst case being another op to fix the sternum back together. Patience is required. 😀
That's what I was told too GWP, after a triple bypass in February this year. Nothing heavier than a half-full kettle of water for 12 weeks. My assessment with the surgeon 6 weeks after the op involved an ECG and x-ray in different parts of the hospital. I then took the print outs to the surgeon and he was delighted with the progress. However, although he said I was now fit to drive again, I still wasn't allowed to lift anything heavier than the kettle for the full 12 weeks.It was a very nice meeting though. When he looked at my x-ray on screen, he punched the air and said "Yes - perfect!". His reaction really encouraged me and I felt as if I should have been awarded a gold star for doing so well even though it was my body doing all the hard work! 😇😀
What is very clear is that there is no one definitive set of rules. I was told I shouldn't drive for 13 weeks. That's when I went to see a GP at the practice I'm with... she'd never seen me before, but gave me the okay. So many variables. Sometimes I wonder whether they make it up as they go along!
Dear Carlg
I was told that the sternum healing is one of the most problematic injuries to heal, mainly due to the movement it receives and is almost impossible to isolate { like a leg or arm } until it does.
So you have done really well so far and you have a little longer until you can resume normal activities.
At the end of September it will be a year for me and still I find a tightness across the chest and a slight ache, which is nothing for the good that the operation has done.
Take care you are doing fantastic
For me it was about 2 months until I started to feel 'normal' then got the post op blues. Make sure you are doing your exercises which is mobility and the breathing ones. I stopped doing my breathing ones and then had pain with lungs for a few days and that went away when I started them again. When getting in and out of bed then use both hands and distribute the weight evenly. This minimises any movement. I'm about 3 months post op. Definitely don't do any heavy lifting as I tried some push ups last week and have some pain come back in the sternum. They say you can play tennis at 6 months and then golf after a year.
Be patient. Thats what my cardio told me. It will take time but you will get there. Stay safe.
I was lucky to have mine via minimally invasive cabg. I was on cardio rehab 4 days after surgery and on day 10 was on threadmill already. Still continuing rehab (phase 3) and now at mets 8.
I'm 2 years down the line and I still get occasional discomfort...had to modify my work life accordingly...ie very little heavy lifting etc ☹️
3.5 weeks for me. All as expected so far but begin physical rehab in 3 weeks. My issue is the top of my chest (immediately below my neck) feels like a big lump and isn't going down. It may be to do with dissolvable stitches not dissolving (due out this week) but if not then it's a real concern.
I have a lump in the same place. For me it's because they stitched me up from bottom to top so it's like a lump of the excess tissue. (One of the weekend doctors had never seen it done that way). However I have been told that it should smooth out over time.
Hi - another bicuspid here (plus CABG) - I had that same lump and it’s just started ‘flattening out’ and the ‘clunking’ has just about gone. I’m relatively fit, playing golf again and about 5 months down the line. I was told it’s probably going to be 12-18 months down the line until you feel ‘normal’ again, and I reckon that feels like it might be about right. We’re all a bit different, but enjoy cardiac rehab and listen to / take heed of the professional advice and I’m sure everything will be great somewhere down the line… 🙂👍🙏
Thanks all. My scarvis a bit lunpy& bumpy but I expected that. The lump eight at the top is quite visible and I've been told two different things - 1) it's to do with the dissolvable stitches not doing what they should and aggravating it all, and 2) all the tubes & cameras that went down my throat. Either way I waa told it would flatten within a couple of weeks but it's almost four now and still unsightly (definitely bigger on some days). I feel I look like I have half a chicken breast stuck in my throat! But I know it's early days.
I was told it can take upto 6 months as you have bones, muscles and nerves that have to repair. 5 years after and I have numbness on left side, permanently. It doesn’t matter though as it is a small thing and the surgery saved my life.
Hello, Don't worry about your sternum, it'll mend in its own good time.You will get niggles and discomfort at times, it goes with the surgery, but, by 5 weeks I'd have thought you'd be progressing well at your age.
Having had my Sternum cut open on three occasions, the first at 33 years old, it's my experience that being young is a big advantage in the healing process. You'll know when you can or can't do things.
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