Help Please

[TeeCee]

HI, Im new here and have a question. My 15 yr old daughter had surgery Aug 2nd of this year to correct two curves that were 60 and 80 degrees. Her entire spine from L4 to T4 was fused. She has done wonderfully, except one issue that even her doctor is stumped. She is having tremondous pain in her chest area. It is a sharp pain that gets worse when she takes a deep breath. My daughter said the pain is right under her heart. She has had this pain since the day after surgery. It seems to be getting worse now, mainly because they have removed her from her pain medicine completely, so she notices it more. Her doctor said her x rays look fine, and he doesn't know what it is. We are scared and my daughter is frustrated at her doctor because he is not helping her fix whatever is hurting her. I have called her regular doc and he said he can't see her about it, because she is under care of her back doctor now. Has anyone else had simular pain? Could it possibly be soreness from them moving her spine? Please help! Thank You.

[tonibunny]

Hi Teecee,

I'm surprised that your daughter's doctor is stumped by this - I know quite a few people (myself included) who suffered from pain like this following surgery!

Surgery causes temporary damage to nerves, and nerves can "refer" pain to different parts of the body, so you can end up with pain where you don't expect. In my case, damage to nerves at the back of the thoracic spine caused pain to show up round the front of the ribcage, and that was a very sharp pain which naturally meant I didn't want to take a deep breath. Nerve damage can take days to heal, or it can take months.

If nothing's showing up on tests, then hopefully this is the case with your daughter too, and she'll be OK :) I think she should ask for some prescription painkillers though, so she's not so uncomfortable.

Hope this helps!