Hi mspast40,
I must have missed your post earlier today.
I haven't had surgery so i can't compare - but I don't recall reading anything like what you describe- but always a first time .

You could be having a vein compression?? I would definitely have it looked at in detail by someone to track down the cause.

Have you compared heart type sx vs TOS type sx? We have some online diagnosis helpers/checkers in our useful links.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=84

that might be a help to decide which kind of doc to see.

We do have some nurses here they might have some ideas on if it could be heart related.