Spasm-like pain in left chest/back area

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and just had a TAH on May 23rd. I thought I was doing fine in the recovery dept until this afternoon. I had had trouble going to the restroom and today I could tell I really needed to go and strained a little bit. I didn't notice pain so much in my incision area, however, shortly after I finished (and I did go a little, but not much) I noticed that it felt like I had pulled a muscle or had a pinched nerve in my left chest/back area kind of starting under my left breast and radiating around to the back area. I can breathe fine except that the pain is excruciating. I have noticed throughout the evening that every now and then I will feel something like a hiccup/burp and then I feel a very sharp pain in that area. I think that might be a spasm.

I was thinking maybe when I went to the restroom I over compensated with my other muscles while I was trying not to hurt my incision. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

The Dr has me on Ibuprofen 600mg and that isn't helping much. I used a heating pad for a little while on the area, and that calmed it down a little.

Any info or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks so much,

SoonerSweetie

Hi there

Now, I'm assuming you've told your doctor about this. Any pain like that needs checking out on the off chance it might be related to your heart in some way. You're only a week postop and there's always the possibility of blood clots to consider as well. I'm sure you're right and that it is just a pulled muscle or a muscle spasm, but better safe than sorry.

I've had a similar thing happen to me when I rolled over in bed one night and I couldn't take a deep breath properly without it hurting. Definitely felt like some sort of muscle spasm. It was quite scary at the time but it eased off over the next few hours and went away.

In your case though, being a very new Princess, this needs checking out. All the very best.

Thanks very much for the info.

It is better this morning although I can still feel the tightness of the muscle.

But the best news is that I actually went to the bathroom this morning. I feel like shouting it to the world, lol, as gross as that sounds.

I already feel better down there just from that.

Thanks again for the info and I'm so glad I found this site, it is so helpful.

soonersweetie