On December 26, 2007 my mom suffered a heart attack and had open heart surgery (3 way bypass). After being home approximately a month she started having chronic pain on her left front side (ribs) which felt like it radiated around to her side. She would describe it as sharp shooting pains with a constant dull ache at first. She was hospitalized in February of 2008 and they more or less done every type of scan, xray and blood test to try and find the cause. She was released with the hospital physican stating that she possibly had shingles and to schedule an appt. with her physican. Well, it is now October 2008 and after many Dr. appointments, she has continued to deal with this constant pain. However, the pain has jumped from the left side to the right side and is now back to the left side. Her ribs will feel like they are actually swollen (which I know bone does not swell) and it will feel "hot" to her. Her pain does let up a little when she has been lying down for awhile. She has tried cold and hot applications, ibuprofen, vitamins, lidoderm patches and other various "fixes" and has failed it all. She has continued to see her family physician for this and has been prescribed lyrica 3 times a day for several months now and takes darvocet for the pain 3 times a day as well. Prior to her heart attack she was very active, appeared very healthy for her age (65) and was never short of breath. This pain has kept her from ever feeling good or I should say even close to good since her surgery. Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts? Please help I need my feel good mom back so she can feel good about life again.