Sternum Pain - Pain Management Message Board

kincaidm38 · 05-01-2009, 07:18 AM

My 6 month old daughter broke my sternum in two places and dislocated it as well by head butting me over a period of about a week. It took doctors a year and a half to realize that it was in fact broken in two places and dislocated... not muscular. They now believe that it is broken again only in a different place, we are just awaiting the CT Scan results. I am in so much pain and can't figure out how it broke again. What is causing my sternum to break so easily?

belnap · 03-01-2010, 06:59 PM

My husdand has had a broken sternum for four years before they finally discovered it, thought it was muscular also. Did you have surgery to repair your sternum? How was your recovery?

kincaidm38 · 03-02-2010, 06:01 AM

I did have to have yet another surgery. I had managed to break the plates, that were securing my sternum, in half. They went back in to repair it yet again back in May. I am still in constant pain and they are trying to figure out why I have so much swelling and pain in the sternum still. I can't wipe counters, comb my daughters hair, etc. without it hurting and flaring up. :O( I have another CT scan scheduled for later this week. Depending on the results of the CT Scan, They are considering putting me on steroids to see if it will help with the swelling.

belnap · 03-04-2010, 06:23 AM

I can (almost) completely understand your pain. My husband went from working 40+hours a week at his full time job plus owning his own motor repair shop and drag racing to sitting in a chair trying to rock away his pain. In the past four years we tried everything from steriods, steriod injections, accupuncture, pain meds, spinal blocks and an implanted spinal stimulator. The CT scans had missed his break because it was vertical. After your surgeries how long did it take for you to start recovering or noticing any changes? I can understand the strain this has had on you and your family. You must be a very strong person, just like my husband.

kincaidm38 · 03-04-2010, 07:47 AM

I am still suffering. I am currently going thru more test to figure out why it still hurts most days. :O( I had two fractures and a dislocation...... Even though I had surgery 5 years ago to stabalize the sternum it is still just as broken today as it was 6 years ago. They don't know what is causing my pain now as the CT Scan from 3 months ago showed that even though it's still broken it is stable with the H shaped surgical plates and screws that they put in about a year ago. I have huge knots of inflamation all up and down the right side of the sternum now. They are going to do another CT scan next week but if that doesnt show anything they are thinking of putting me on steroids as well. I live in almost constant pain and have been since 2003 when it was initially broken. I lived on Ibuprophen and Celebrex for the first year and a half when it first broke. The docs kept telling me that it was muscular and sending me away. :O( I finally told him to prove it. The MRI showed NOTHING! and the Bone Scan showed one "healing fracture." I had to call the Thoracic specialist and ask to be referred. The doc was going to send me away and told me to follow up in 6 months. Can you believe that? I would have had to walk around for another 6 months broken like that. When the surgeon got in there he found the second fracture and the dislocation that the CT Scan missed. I am sooo frustrated. I can't figure out why it still hurts. I have to sleep on a heating pad nightly, I have to take Ibuprophen or Vicoden at night just to be able to sleep. I don't like taking Vicoden as it can be habbit forming so I only allow myself to take one once a week..and I usually pick the night that it is at it's worst. Usually when I have been cleaning house, or something that requires me to use my arms. It even hurts to breath on the bad days. :O( Nobody seems to know what the heck is going on though.