Seperated Sternum .

Hi Les,

yhanks for the reply, I know you are right but I atill remember the horrific pain from the coughing after the surgery and grabbing the pillow to help. I have no pain or problems what so ever. Just a coward I guess

I'm 72 now. I had 6x bypass 16 years ago. I know I would feel I needed to have it fixed if it was me but I certainly would not be looking forward to the after effects either, as you say. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad though since it's not freshly sawed.:-|

Did it never heal together? I don't remember how long it took but mine finally stuck itself together. Not exactly even though. I can feel that the left side is a little forward of the right side when I run my fingers over my collar bone. I do remember the feeling of the sides moving back and forth before they finally stuck.

I just can't imagine the wires breaking. I've certainly tested mine over the years. I went back to TV repair shortly after the operation, carrying 27" TVs by myself. Moving huge floor model TVs to work on them. Putting the snow plow on my Jeep about 3 weeks after the operation because we had a freak April snow. Today I have a railcar that weighs 1200 pounds and I lift one end of it by the handles provided to turn it around. I pulled a back muscle doing that last week that hurt for a few days. After working under my car I can feel the wires pulling as my rib cage resumes it's normal shape when I stand up. The wires pull when the barometer drops and my chest tries to expand.

It just seems strange to me that your wires broke.

thank you so much for the comments. As you know from having this it is very painful. I have had a C T scan and also xrays and the doctors do say the wires have broken ,possibly from the coughing. Just having a hard time wanting to be opened and rewired again. While not as bad as the by pass the Dr. said it would be uncomfortable and a 4-5 day hosp stay as well as about 60k.

60K wow, how come they don't have to warrantee their work like I was expected to when I was fixing TVs?

They left my xiphoid sticking straight out forward which is stiill painful as h*ll if it hits anything and I can't lay on my stomach. The heart surgeon tried to tell me that bump sticking out was a hiatal hernia and was a common side effect of the operation. He offered to fix that for another 20k 16 years ago.

Later on I got them to xray me over at the VA hospital and they showed me the xray that proved it was what they called a "deflected sternum".

Good luck with the operation, I'm pretty sure you will decide to do it.