Hi There, diagnosed with breast cancer recently on the left hand side. Small cancer against my chest wall left breast, was hard to see on a mammogram. Over the last few months ( before being diagnosed and before taking Tamoxifen) I was / am having muscle spasms / involuntary twitches in my left breast, left chest wall all the time, well whilst at rest.
Can anyone shed any light on this ? Or have you experienced these symptoms?
Thank you xx
Hi Fizzler,
Thanks for getting in touch. My name is Rachel and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurses on the Macmillan Support Line. It’s lovely to see that you’ve joined a couple of our groups on the online community. I hope that you’re finding them helpful and supportive.
I’m sorry to read about your recent diagnosis with breast cancer and can imagine that this must be a very difficult time for you. Getting a cancer diagnosis and going through treatment can raise all kinds of questions and emotions. I’m glad that you’ve reached out to us for information.
I can see that you’ve posted several messages to us this morning, I hope you don’t mind if I respond to them together here.
As nurses on this forum, we can’t give specific medical advice and don’t have access to medical records. Your breast cancer team, who include your consultant and breast nurse, or GP if they’re managing your care while you’re on Tamoxifen, are best placed to do this.
It’s important to speak to your team or GP about any medication including vitamin supplements, that you’re taking or thinking of starting while on Tamoxifen. This includes any over the counter medications and complementary therapies such as vitamin supplements, as well as any alternative treatments including CBD oil as some of these drugs can interact with Tamoxifen and affect how it works.
If you have a Breast nurse you can contact them by phone and leave a message, they’ll usually get back to you within 48 hours during the week. If you don’t have access to a nurse, you can contact your consultant by phoning the hospital switch board and asking to be put through to their secretary, or you can make an appointment to see your GP.
In the meantime, here’s some information that may help.
You mention that you experienced muscle spasms/ involuntary twitches in the chest wall area of your left breast before your diagnosis. Twitches and spasms aren’t common symptoms of breast cancer. There are muscles and nerves in that area, and it’s possible that anything that irritates or affects them may cause twitching or spasms. It’s reassuring that you haven’t experienced this since starting tamoxifen. If it re occurs in future, we’d certainly suggest you discuss it with your cancer team.
Insomnia can be very difficult to cope with and having experienced it for several years I can’t imagine the impact it has on you especially when you’re coping with cancer treatment and being a single parent. Zopidem can be effective at helping people to sleep but is usually only used for short periods of time. If this isn’t working for you the first thing we’d suggest is to talk to your GP or cancer team. They will be able to help you to identify what’s causing your sleep problems and suggest or prescribe other treatments that may help.
Macmillan also have information about things that you can try that may help when you can’t sleep which includes self- care tips and links to information about access to free counselling and other support that you may find helpful.
You mention that you have a teenage son. We also have information about talking to children and teenagers when an adult has cancer, which has links to support organisations that they can access on- line.
I do hope this information is helpful but please know that you can call us if you have further questions or would like to talk things through.
Take care
Rachel
(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:RC/JL
