@pb50- You bring up a great point! Normalcy doesn't happen after cancer. It's life challenging, emotionally draining, and changing. I don't know one person who hasn't reviewed their life and changed in even a small way. I certainly did.

Physically you will change too. Your breathing will change and your chest wall's topography will have been changed. You might breathe easier too.

The most important thing is to get out and visit the world after you feel good. You didn't go through all of the pain and emotional toil and fear, not to change your life, right?

Was your rib broken? Mine were spread and then I broke a rin picking up a Thanksgiving Turkey to carry into the house. He was not walking through my yard! And that was very painful.

Can you move your arms without pain?

Me too. Following my VAT surgery ULL on May 19th, I never quite got back to where I was. Nerve pain did go away but numbness remains under the left breast. The biggest issue is a crisis in breathing that occurred about 2 months back. I have shortness of breath just getting off the sofa. I tried antibiotics with no change and am now on Prednisone for 6 weeks and that has helped. Suspected alveolitis. Besides the multifocal cancer I have fibrosis - if mild or something more still to be determined.
I can walk more now but with exertion I feel like my diaphragm won't open up and allow me to take a complete breath. I don't know if it is the scarring in the lung or the muscle that is not cooperating. Certainly, surgery can damage nerves and muscles in the area. In my case I even had a fractured rib