what can the occasional throb pain, 4 month after mastec?

[CLTann]

Dear Friends,

I had 1 cm invasive ductal cancel, ER/PR/HER2 all positive. I opted for mastec 09/05. Clear margin. No chemo and no radiation. On Arimidex. Just about one week ago, I had occasional pain from the area where the skin was cut and sewed together. There is no palpable tissue under the area. When I press down at the area, there is no pain. As we all have the fear on anything abnormal, I would like to ask those who had the same operation whether they too had this problem. The original tumor was in the 3 o'clock and distant from center position, it is not likely that there is residual cancer cells nearby. All sentinel nodes (4 taken) were negative. Otherwise, I feel fine.

Any advice is welcome and appreciated.

Ann

[Becky]

I had lumpectomy and have the same thing. It started around the same time as you (maybe 3 months out and I am now almost 18 months out from surgery). My first onco told me it was the healing process but I just saw my surgeon for a follow up appt and she told me this is common in 10% of surgerical cases - it is due to the nerves only partially regenerating themselves (as I still have the phantom pain and then do a thourough breast check (since I still have one)). Now I know better and only self check once a month (surgeon said too much pushing and rubbing will cause irritation etc and she is right but when you feel a funny feeling - you are compelled to keep checking it out).


Yours is probably the same thing.

Becky

[DeborahNC]

I had bilateral mast 9/05 and have intermittent throbbing in both scars and around to my back where I'm still numb. I even experience intense itching deep within the numb areas at times and have phantom nipple sensations . In my case I really believe it is nerve regeneration related.

[michele u]

Ann, that pain is so normal for us. It's the body growing back nerves and dealing with all the trauma of surgery. If your feeling that area, that is good, then some feeling will come back. Have you had any physical therapy on the site? this helped me alot. They stretch and message that area to help it to get the flow back going and the tissues stetched back out. We want to baby this area, buy it needs to get "going" again. I recommend a physcial therapist that has lots of training in lyphadema messaging

Here is a related link

Solving the Mystery - Post Breast Therapy Pain Syndrome

http://www.cancerlynx.com/painpbtps.html

RB