I'm now just a day shy of 6 weeks after surgery. As I understand, this is supposed to be a big marker of how well the surgery went as this is when strength training can begin with PT. Unfortunately, my first PT appointment is today. Ugh. I'm nowhere near ready to begin strength training and I'm hoping that my PT will be able to help get some of this "wrecked" feeling I have to move along. I'm hopeful because my arms themselves are feeling great. My chest, back, shoulder blades and neck are not feeling great these days.
The shortness of breath comes and goes but is not near as dramatic as it had been. Before, I was a step away from heading to the ER, now it's pretty ignorable when it happens.
What I have noticed, is that my sternum is feeling worse day by day. I believe I am the only one here to have had this particular surgical approach so I haven't bothered to ask anyone about how their sternum feels but I'm starting to be suspicious that my sternum is failing to heal properly or that I aggravated it in some way. Either that or I'm not tolerating the wires very well as when I turn my head a certain way or push my hands inward (like to clap, squeeze something together in my hands or anything other motion that has me push towards my center) I get fairly strong pain in my sternum.
I'll update again as I make some progress (hopefully!) in PT.