Post op sensations?

Hi Hopeful one,

My name is Keith and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialist.

I hope you are finding the support and information on the online community helpful.

Everyone can be affected by any diagnosis and its treatment in so many ways. It’s difficult on this platform to discuss and advise on individual situations for this reason.

However, with any surgery there can be side effects such as pain or changes to sensation caused by possible nerve damage.

If these problems continue or develop after treatment finishes, they are sometimes called late effects.

However, our advice would always be the same, if you have any new/worrying or worsening symptoms you should always go back to your treatment team to have any concerns reassessed.

If for nothing else to put your mind at rest.

Your team’s job is to support you both emotionally as well as physically because situations like this can affect you in so many ways.

Its important you keep in touch with your team regarding this as they will know you best and be able to support you both physically and emotionally and would also manage or refer you to any appropriate health care professionals if appropriate to do so.

 For example, if it is a side effect of the surgery having some physiotherapy input may be helpful.

You’re right, Anastrozole can cause the side affects you  have mentioned such as fatigue, sore joints and muscles which could possibly be not helping with your other symptoms .

Side effects vary from person to person in both severity and what side affects you have.

Most side effects can be managed. But sometimes side effects are harder to control. If side effects cannot be managed, your doctor may suggest you take a different type of hormonal therapy. So, getting your medications reviewed by your treatment team may be an option to discuss further with your team.

You mentioned fibroadenoma, these can be quite common and are usually harmless. These can occur at any age and aren’t known to increase the risk of developing breast cancer and don’t usually need any treatment but in some situations, they can become larger where surgery may be advised or offered.

If this is concerning you I would discuss this further with your team to see what they would advise regarding the management of this as well as taking everything else into account.

As I have already said on this platform, we can’t give individual advice. That would be a discussion with your treatment team to discuss all the above to come up with some form of management/investigatory plan  

If you’d like further explanation or have any other questions, please feel free to recontact us, either on this platform or give one of our cancer information nurses a call on our help line.

take care

Keith, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

Ref KM/Lrob

Thank you Keith. Your advice is really helpful. It's reassuring to know that I can voice any concerns on this platform.