Left shoulder pain 1 week post-op?

[skinnyorbust 0]

I am one week post-op today, and I started having that defered shoulder pain that I had the day of surgery.. come back! Every time I breathe in it hurts, other times it nags me, makes me want to stretch out my neck to make it go away. Anyone else expereince this? I thought all that would be gone by now. I did not really have a lot of that in the beginning except the day of surgery, maybe a little the next day. I know it has to do something with the diaphram, and gas. My ribs also hurt on that side if I breathe in deeply...? Weird..:thumbup:

[Humming Bird 275]

I feel for you. Some bandsters never have the left shoulder pain and some only have it for a week or 2.

Mine lasted a couple months. It was even my full signal for awhile. I can tell you that it does go away. Mine went away after I dropped some weight and the pressure was no longer on the phrenic nerve. One thing that did help me were equate brand (walmart) menthol pain Patches. They are under $4 and well worth the trip to Walmart. I would just put a patch on the tip of my shoulder in the evning and leave it on all night.

Here is some info I copied from another banster's post awhile ago:

Best explanation of left shoulder pain I've ever found.

If you woke up with a pain in your shoulder, you'd probably think something was wrong with your shoulder, right? Maybe you slept on it the wrong way, maybe you're a weekend warrior who threw the football a few too many times. In most cases, your hunch is probably right. Pain in the shoulder usually indicates an injury or disease that affects a structure in your shoulder, such as, say, your subacromial bursa or a rotator cuff tendon. Makes sense, doesn't it?

But you might be way off. Sometimes the brain gets confused, making you think that one part of the body hurts, when in fact another part of the body, far removed from the pain, is the real source of trouble. This curious (and clinically important) phenomenon is known as referred pain. For example, it's unlikely but possible that your shoulder pain is a sign of something insidious happening in your liver, gall bladder, stomach, spleen, lungs, or pericardial sac (the connective tissue bag containing the heart). Yup - conditions as diverse as liver abscesses, gallstones, gastric ulcers, splenic rupture, pneumonia, and pericarditis can all cause shoulder pain. What's up with that?

Neuroscientists still don't know precisely which anatomical connections are responsible for referred pain, but the prevailing explanation seems to work pretty well. In a nutshell, referred pain happens when nerve fibers from regions of high sensory input (such as the skin) and nerve fibers from regions of normally low sensory input (such as the internal organs) happen to converge on the same levels of the spinal cord. The best known example is pain experienced during a heart attack. Nerves from damaged heart tissue convey pain signals to spinal cord levels T1-T4 on the left side, which happen to be the same levels that receive sensation from the left side of the chest and part of the left arm. The brain isn't used to receiving such strong signals from the heart, so it interprets them as pain in the chest and left arm.

So what about that shoulder pain? All of organs listed above bump up against the diaphragm, the thin, dome-shaped muscle that moves up and down with every breath. The diaphragm is innervated by two phrenic nerves (left and right), which emerge from spinal cord levels C3, C4, and C5 (medical students remember these spinal cord levels using the mnemonic, "C3, 4, 5 keeps the diaphragm alive"). The phrenic nerves carry both motor and sensory impulses, so they make the diaphragm move and they convey sensation from the diaphragm to the central nervous system.

Most of the time there isn't any sensation to convey from the diaphragm, at least at the conscious level. But if a nearby organ gets sick, it may irritate the diaphragm, and the sensory fibers of one of the phrenic nerves are flooded with pain signals that travel to the spinal cord (at C3-C5). It turns out that C3 and C4 don't just keep the diaphragm alive; neurons at these two spinal cord levels also receive sensation from the shoulders (via the supraclavicular nerves). So when pain neurons at C3 and C4 sound the alarm, the brain assumes (quite reasonably) that the shoulder is to blame. Usually that's a good assumption, but sometimes it's wrong.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Humming Bird

[skinnyorbust 0]

Thanks Hummingbird! What a great explaination! I just did not know if it was normal to feel it this long after the surgery, but I guess so! Sorry you had to endure it for so long! I took Motrin last night before bed and slept well. This morning I got up and it was really hurting! So I took some more Motrin, I think it is wearing off now, I am feeling it again. Maybe I will try one of those Patches. I have Icy Hot cream, maybe I will try that for now. Thanks again forthe info!:thumbup:

[golfingnurse 0]

I was told no motrin post op.....did you check with your doctor?

[skinnyorbust 0]

Nurse told me to take Motrin in between the Vicodin doses, for more pain control. I take the liquid childrens stuff, the 11yr old dose, 3 tbs.

[mom2cjpx4 0]

I was told no Motrin, too, ever again. I suffer Migraines and have always took 800 mg of Ibuprofen but am no longer allowed to take any Ibuprofen, only Acetominophen (Tylenol.) You might want to check with your doctor on that.

[hpygirl30 0]

Hi - I am two weeks post op and still having this about 1/2 to an hour after I eat. It doesn't seem to matter if I eat mushie food or my Protein Shake it causes the pain. It really gets to me and I am frustrated that it won't go away. I have read here some great explanations and given me some hope and feeling I am not alone. But does anyone else have this happen when they eat?

Thanks,

[431kiwi 5]

Hi everyone,

I am two weeks post op today and I still have incredible shoulder pain. It was so bad last week that I went to see my doc early and had to do an Upper GI to make sure everything was where it should be.

Mine is apparently caused by the large surprise hernia repair he had to do. He said I could piggy back the hydrocodone with ibuprofen for a while until it got better. My primary also gave me some lidocaine Patches to use at night as it was waking me up when the meds wore off.

It was really bad when I would try to exercise or if I got the slightest bit puffed. It is subsiding finally and I managed to do 4 miles on the treadmill this morning without having to push through it.

I feel your pain - literally. I hope your's gets better soon.

Toby

[hpygirl30 0]

You make me feel like a bum as I haven't been walking that kind of distance at all. I have a hard enough time just making it to work.

[431kiwi 5]

I'm sure you are not a bum!

I am super competitive with myself and keep having to better my times - I thought I was gonna have to call in sick after I got home if that is any consolation. I was dead - it was too much, too soon. I need to let my body heal more before I go do that again.

Everyone is different - :-)

[Miss Lisa 0]

I had this same thing the day after my surgery and was told it was my signal that I'd eaten too much too fast. I'm pacing myself as far as food goes and writing it all down along with the times I do everything, so that I can keep track of what works best. Since I started doing that, I have no pain and when I take a deep breath I can feel it in my ribs. my nurse said it's because I'm not taking 20 minutes for a meal, I'm just in too much of a hurry. losing a pound a day though.