Funny you say your left is worse than your right side - mine was (and still is) too. The scar on my left is also much larger and I did have a complication on the left with the chest tube, it was hitting a nerve so I couldn't stand up after my left surgery, very uncomfortable, pain through the roof until they took the chest tube out then it was much better. The pain on my left side was also much worse, and like you said, in the back between the shoulder blades. When I came home from the hospital and was off the really good drugs I had a hard time sleeping, it was very uncomfortable on my back and of course I couldn't sleep on either side for the first few weeks because of incisions on both sides.

But after a few days at home the pain got better. Every day it was amazing how much better I felt. Very tired though, lots of resting. But I was up and we were out doing things right away, hubby had to wash my hair over the tub for me the first few days. We have horses and I found that a long polo bandage meant to wrap around a horse's leg felt great wrapped around my chest up high under my boobs, it felt like it gave me support and held everything in. Breathing was tough the first bit - a sneeze is hell! But again, it gets better every day and returns to normal.

By the way, I am 44 yrs old, no kids, but we do have horses and I live a fairly active lifestyle, was riding and running regularly prior to surgery so am fairly fit - I am not a super athlete type but try to stay healthy. I think that helps as I saw people coming out of the same surgery I had in really rough shape, but maybe it is just different reactions to the anaesthesia, etc.

One bad thing was we sold our house and had to move when I was a week out of the hospital - we hired people to move stuff and to clean the house but of course I still ended up doing stuff, more than I should have and was pretty sore after that for a few days. Timing sucked but you gotta do what you gotta do!

Ok, so it is 4 1/2 weeks post surgery - saw surgeon last week - he ok'd me to start Physio now - I have an appt tomorrow. He also said I can start light exercise again (no weight lifting though, ha ha) and yoga classes. I have been taking my horse for walks through the snow for the past few weeks. They say to not drive for a few weeks - I was able to drive after one week. I went to a yoga class a few days ago, it was tough and I had to modify poses and do a lot of child's poses (resting pose) but I made it and it felt great, and I wasn't sore the next day.

I have been back doing normal daily stuff like cooking and shopping, cleaning, but I only do a little and then rest. The first month I noticed I was really tired a lot and needed a lot of rest, feeling more normal now. Everything is modified from normal of course, but then it was always modified before surgery anyhow, so not a lot of change there.

Oh yeah, and my hands are warmer too.

I have two more months to recover before I have to return to work so I hope that things settle more in that time. My GP is quite optimistic. The surgeon is too, he thinks I'm currently at 50% better and before surgery and things will continue to improve over the next 2 months.

My problem is that I feel pretty good so its hard to not do too much. But I am still amazed that I feel as good as I do for having just had such a brutal surgery. It's pretty funny to see people's reactions when you tell them you just had two ribs removed - they look at you like you are from Mars!

For sure, I am no worse off than before surgery, my shoulders don't ache as much, upper arms not as bad, forearms hardly at all now, but elbows do still hurt, some neck stiffness but not as bad. The pain in the back between shoulder blades from surgery is lessening, only feel it once in a while now and it is mostly on the left side, hardly ever felt it on the right. At first I did feel a lot of strange almost firing or pulsing sensations in my arms but that went away.

I guess it's all just a waiting game. But take heart, it does continue to get better!