Question:
9 days post op, severe coughing, stabbing pain in shoulder...

Hi everyone! I started getting sick the day I left the hospital, congested, aching, coughing etc. Well I've been coughing like crazy all week then 2 nights ago while in bed I suddenly started getting sharp stabbing pains on my left side shoulder, chest, and back. I spent the night on ice and went to the er in the morning when it was still happening and I was very short of breath. They ran through the process of ruling out pneumonia, collapsed lungs, and a blood clot and sent me home with antibiotics and called it bronchitis. Well the pain is mostly gone now but it still hurts alot when take in a really deep breath, yawn, hiccup, or have to burp- it's ashooting pain up my shoulder. I was reading through old questions and came across one that mentioned that shoulder pain can be indicative of a leak- is all that intense coughing something that could cause a rupture in the staple line to occur? Of course I'll call my surgeon first thing in the morning now, but in the meantime I'm starting to worry. I'm also feeling really hungry and have been since yesterday. I ate almost 5 ounces of soup in one sitting this morning and had to force myself to stop. Any thoughts?    — Leisl L. (posted on March 15, 2002)

March 14, 2002
The same thing basically happened to me. I ended up in the hospital for 3 weeks after I came home from surgery. They did all the x-ray stuff and nothing showed up..........the first time. Doc said it was caused by gas pain. WELL, it didn't get better after a few days so back to the docs I went. I went thru the whole process of x-rays again, cat scan, chest etc.......turns out I did have pneumonia AND I had fluid that had accumulated betweeen my diaphram and lung. I'm not saying that this is what's wrong with you but I would get get the x-rays again. I'm living proof that things don't always show up the first time.
   — Kim B.