rib pain??

[itsjustme]

Hello all, I'm a few days shy of being 6months post-op. For the past 3 days now I have been experiencing this horrendous pain in my left side of my ribcage right under my underarm. It hurts when I breath in, cough, and try and lay down. I don't have an appointment with my doctor for another 6 months. Has anyone else experienced this? And if so, what is it, and what can be done to alleviate the pain. I've already been taking ibuprofin 800 and it still feels the same. ~Shelley

[Jay1984]

Hi,

Should you be taking ibuprofen? I thought that it interferes with the fusion?

Did you have any lung problems after your surgery?

Or did you have a rib taken out during your surgery?

Dont be scared to ring your doc - just because he said 6 months, doesnt mean you have to wait that long.

Good luck!

Regards,

[itsjustme]

my surgeon said he didn't want me taking it w/in the first 3 months and that it was fine if I did now. However, I didn't have any rib pain before surgery and I still have all the ribs I was born with. I just don't know what's going on. :/

[Theresa]

Shelley,

I have rib pain on the right side where my anterior incision is, I also had a rib taken out from that same area. I'm seeing a pain management doctor about it. He said it is called Intercoastal Neuralgia. I had 6 trigger point injections for it and it really helped.

[itsjustme]

I didn't have anterior spinal fusion. I only had posterior. I have an appointment today, I'll ask my PCM what this is. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this for me. I'll post when I'm done with my appointment, hopefully this will help anyone else in the future who is having this problem after posterior spinal fusion surgery. Thanks for all of your help. ~Shelley

[Abbyjo_21]

How did they do your surgery?? Did they go straight down the back or did they go through your side? With my first surgery they went through my side to try to eliminate scarring for things like prom so therefor they had to go through my ribs. I also had a chest tube and my ribs were extremely sore for a really long time. Sneezing and coughing was extremely painful to the point where my body broke my sneezes down into little sneezes and i still sneeze that way. This was 4 years ago and i still have rib pain occasionally when i just breath, but if i ever touch those ribs, it hurts really bad. For you they might have taken bone grafts from your ribs and that could be causing the pain...you'll have to find out. Don't be affraid to call up there. You should feel like you can call your surgeon at any time. I called my doctor two weeks post-opp because of something that happened. They're there to help you...call whenever you want to!
Regards,
Abby

[itsjustme]

My doctor only went through my back. Straight down my spine. I didn't have a chest tube, and I didn't have any ribs taken out. Also, my bone grafting was done from my spineous process and also helos (stem cells if I remember correctly) Well, I guess I'll call him tomorrow, because this tends to come and go every couple of days.