Chronic Chest Pain after bypass surgery

Hi, I am a new member. I had a heart attack on November 3rd, 2012. On November 6th 2012 I had a triple bypass. All went well, or so it seemed....here I am 604 days later and I am in constant chest pain. Latest testing shows that my sternum is unstable, non-union, and overlapping. (CAT, Nuclear Med testing, Bone scan and White Blood Cell uptake). My family Doctor believes I have to learn to live with it...??? Because my wires have not broken according to him I'm good to go, I should have no issues with the chest pain because the sternum would not cause the pain I'm experiencing?

I have not been able to work due to the chronic pain and the many issues which come with it..constant head aches, fatigue, pain fog, unable to concentrate and the list goes on. Prior to having my heart attack I had no symptoms, no angina, no fatigue and worked every day!

My cardiologist is the least bit interested in my ongoing issue with pain...He told me he was "Heart Doctor", my heart is fixed so its not his issue.

My heart Surgeon is unconcerned as well, told me I was lucky that I could stand the weight of my shirt on my chest as some of his patients can't...really, thanks for the support!

Because I live in Ontario Canada I can't just go and get second opinions from other Doctors. I have been refered to a pain clinic which wanted $14,000.00 for assessment and treatment, which I don't have as I've not been able to go to work for over a year, which equates to no income.

I have now been refered to a different pain clinic which has a two and half year wait to be seen?

If any other members can relate to this issue, how are you coping? I could go to the Emergency Department every day with heart attack like symptoms, but I will not because I know its not my heart....I did not have an atypical heart attack in the first place, really no pain to speak of and it took me three days to go to the hospital, and then it was just because I didn't feel quite right and had not eaten in three days. I can't believe that I must live the rest of my days with the feelings and symptoms of having a heart attack everyday??

I have made paragraphs in your post to make it easier to read. Some of our members have tracking problems when reading.

Post Edited By Moderator (straydog) : 7/3/2014 2:31:45 PM (GMT-6)

Hello Willie and welcome to the chronic pain forum! Just out of curiosity did you also post this in the heart forum? I'm wondering if someone there's possibly had this issue and the mods there have lots of experience in cardiac problems although they are away for the weekend if you haven't posted there I would.

I always admire surgeons and their tunnel vision they seem to acquire after Med school, the same Med classes all Drs take? They didn't just spend all those years in cardiovascular surgery.

As for Canada's healthcare system our owns structured similar too now, the general consensus seems to be you will likely die before getting treated were you unlucky enough to have a catastrophic illness!

I once knew a lady whose knee replacement was scheduled 14 months away? If its a non-life threatening procedure or elective the wait can be years. I'm horribly afraid that in the notso distant future we are going to see the same kind of things. Suddenly millions of people who could not afford surgery before can now and honestly we dont have the kind of medical and surgical facilities and staff to accomadate those types of rising numbers so what do we see? People being scheduled many many months away

Glad you found us and hopefully someone will have heard about this type of pain post-op.

My father and an uncle both had triple bypasses several years ago and neither one of them had anything other than normal post operative pain and the occasional discomfort while their sternum healed up, which took about 3-4 months to do.

Sounds like to me that the person who did your bypass screwed up and has done so many times. If at all possible I would try to talk to another heart surgeon about this and see what he says. If you can't get into one in Canada due to insurance b.s. then think about making an appointment or calling one in the USA to get the information you need.