[cherie1955]

Good Morning, I just had a Left rib resection two and a half weeks ago for thoracic outlet syndrome. I have had some improvement but am experiencing alot of pain under my shoulder blade that radiates clear thru my chest wall and makes it very hard to breathe. I have had an x-ray to make sure my lung didn't collapse. It hasn't, thank God. What could be causing this excrutiating pain? I am currently taking Neurontin (nerve pain), Lor-tab (pain), and Robaxin (Muscle spasms).

Cherie1955

[Jomar]

Hello cherie1955,

I haven't heard anyone mention a pain that feels like it is radiating from back to front like you describe - I hope that those that had surgery can give some insight about it for you.

Unless you are having many upper body muscles in spasms and it just seems like it is radiating...
I've had the spasms that caused the breathing weirdness and even thought my heart was beating oddly - but it didn't radiate to my back..

I do know that the rhomboid muscles under the scapula {shoulder blade } can get very fatigued and develop trigger points - but that is usually more of a burning sore spot felt right in that area only.

Be very careful during your recovery time- falls , slips, quick reaches can mess up things.

I'm sure others might have ideas for you..

There is the long thoracic nerve- that runs near the scapula?
Do you have any scapula winging ?

[johannakat]

Originally Posted by cherie1955

Good Morning, I just had a Left rib resection two and a half weeks ago for thoracic outlet syndrome. I have had some improvement but am experiencing alot of pain under my shoulder blade that radiates clear thru my chest wall and makes it very hard to breathe. I have had an x-ray to make sure my lung didn't collapse. It hasn't, thank God. What could be causing this excrutiating pain? I am currently taking Neurontin (nerve pain), Lor-tab (pain), and Robaxin (Muscle spasms).

Cherie1955

i had pain that felt like i had something stuck through me between the shoulder and the center of my chest...i know what you are describing. there are two places where your rib was attached...one in front and one in back. They will both hurt for a while. I had very tender areas around my breastbone and in that area of the shoulder where the rhomboid is.

It took me 4-6 weeks for the pain from the rib resection to get back to where is was pre-surgery, and it started getting better a little at a time from there. (but it was three months and a cortisone shot before i felt really very significantly better on my worst side)

Remember someone cut you open, went in and yanked out a bone that was connected in two places (front and back), then wrestled with your nerves to get them freed from surrounding structures, and sewed you back up again! It is a big deal and it does not heal over night, that's for sure.

Is the pain you are having now new since surgery? Is it getting better or worse with time? If it is getting worse, was it possibly brought on by increased activity?

If the pain is increasing with time and not brought on by activity, bug your doctor a LOT until he/she figures out what is going on. If your pain is similar and decreasing (even very slowly) over time, it may just be part of the slow natural healing process.

[cherie1955]

Originally Posted by johannakat

i had pain that felt like i had something stuck through me between the shoulder and the center of my chest...i know what you are describing. there are two places where your rib was attached...one in front and one in back. They will both hurt for a while. I had very tender areas around my breastbone and in that area of the shoulder where the rhomboid is.

It took me 4-6 weeks for the pain from the rib resection to get back to where is was pre-surgery, and it started getting better a little at a time from there. (but it was three months and a cortisone shot before i felt really very significantly better on my worst side)

Remember someone cut you open, went in and yanked out a bone that was connected in two places (front and back), then wrestled with your nerves to get them freed from surrounding structures, and sewed you back up again! It is a big deal and it does not heal over night, that's for sure.

Is the pain you are having now new since surgery? Is it getting better or worse with time? If it is getting worse, was it possibly brought on by increased activity?

If the pain is increasing with time and not brought on by activity, bug your doctor a LOT until he/she figures out what is going on. If your pain is similar and decreasing (even very slowly) over time, it may just be part of the slow natural healing process.

Thank you so much for the info Johannakat. I wasn't sure if this was normal. I don't see my surgeon again until next week. I guess I will just vegetate for a while. I have been mostly sedentary only walking to keep the circulation going, taking deep breaths, coughing or sneezing are the worst part.
Thanks again,

[cherie1955]

Originally Posted by Jo55

Hello cherie1955,

I haven't heard anyone mention a pain that feels like it is radiating from back to front like you describe - I hope that those that had surgery can give some insight about it for you.

Unless you are having many upper body muscles in spasms and it just seems like it is radiating...
I've had the spasms that caused the breathing weirdness and even thought my heart was beating oddly - but it didn't radiate to my back..

I do know that the rhomboid muscles under the scapula {shoulder blade } can get very fatigued and develop trigger points - but that is usually more of a burning sore spot felt right in that area only.

Be very careful during your recovery time- falls , slips, quick reaches can mess up things.

I'm sure others might have ideas for you..

There is the long thoracic nerve- that runs near the scapula?
Do you have any scapula winging ?

Thanks you Jo55, Johannakat was able to help me quite a bit. What do you mean by Scapula winging?

[johannakat]

Originally Posted by cherie1955

Thank you so much for the info Johannakat. I wasn't sure if this was normal. I don't see my surgeon again until next week. I guess I will just vegetate for a while. I have been mostly sedentary only walking to keep the circulation going, taking deep breaths, coughing or sneezing are the worst part.
Thanks again,

sounds like you are doing all the right things...coughing and laughing have to be the worst!! too bad you need to do both so often after surgery. oh, yeah except for that other daily elimination thing...thank god for colace!!!

[Jomar]

some images of winging -
http://images.google.com/images?q=Sc...=1&sa=N&tab=wi

you can click on each the links for more info about it

[tshadow]

Communicate with your doctors.

Did you know that since July, ever so often, I have to go to ER to have morphine IV to get those chest muscles to stop spasming and hardening (I can't breathe, it's awful, I am so sorry for you also!) It's ALL tos, too. That's all it is for me.

So, get those symptoms to your docs, asap.

[Noxy]

Hey Cherie.After I had my rib resection I had major back spasms that were so bad I could not sleep,walk,sit...and had great difficulty breathing.My physio worked it out for me.Also there is a lot of trauma involved to the muscles and nerves around the surgery which for me was excrutiating to use that arm for anything.Took about 3 weeks to get pain free enough so I could do some basic functions.My surgery was dec7,2007 and still to this date March 15th 2008 I still have pain in my back after a certain length of time of using my arm.
I do hope the pain is gone or will be soon for you.
Time,they say,heals all wounds but sometimes it just seems to take way to long!!!
All the best
Linda.....Ontario Canada