Sternotomy and Re-section of the Mediastinal Mass
 

Hi! I am scheduled for surgery on Apr.3rd @ 9am. I am really nervous and would like some information on this. If anyone has had this surgery, can u plz let me know what ur experience was. What was the recovery time, pain meds. used, and any other info. would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank-you!!

Hi Tinna,

Not sure if you will get a chance to read this before your surgery, but I just wanted to wish you the best of luck, I had my thymectomy via full sternotomy done a few years ago, as a single parent of 2 toddlers I found it a bit more difficult, I was in hospital 11 days post op, the first 2 days I really dont rememeber much, recovery I think for the first 3 weeks was really hard and I was on regular pain meds, if you have a comfy lazyboy chair to sleep in it helps as I found it really hard to get in and out of bed. At the time I was also studying nursing so I was back at Uni within the 3rd week, keep your huggy pillow clsoe by, dont lift anything heavy and keep up with the pain meds :o)

I wish you the best of luck, let me know how you go.

Hi Tinna,

I saw your post both here and in the other thread about the surgery. Best of luck today.

Pain meds that I took: Morphine while in hospital (they tried switching me to Vicodin while I was in there but that really messed me up.) Morphine for the first week post-op at home then Tylenol as needed. It wasn't long before I was off all pain meds.

Recovery time is in the weeks timeline. You're looking at about 6 weeks give or take with a few visits to your surgeon to review x-rays and make sure everything is straight and not clicking on you.

Keep your "heart" pillow close. Hug it before you cough... seriously.

Again, good luck.

Brian.