Well hi peeps. I was diagnosed just before Christmas and had my lumpectomy and sentinel lymph nodes out a week ago. Waiting for my results and staging and feeling quite emotional. I had proper stitches which can come out end of next week and was advised not to start the exercises til after I have them out as my breast tissue was “very delicate”! However I have struggled doing nothing or very little and it is not in my nature to sit still. I don’t think my breast swelling is reducing and feels quite tender towards my underarm. Should I worry? Should I be ecstatic that my breast has gone up a few cup sizes! How have others felt and how long before the swelling goes back to normal? Any advise welcome.
Welcome to the forum, but equally I'm very sorry that you've had to join us. It sounds as if by what they said "very delicate breast tissue" that they expected you to be slightly worse than others who don't have delicate breast tissue. I was diagnosed with ER+ over 3.5 years ago, so I'm dredging my memory... However, I do recall that my breast was swollen and painful for the whole duration of my exercises. If I did too much (ie lifted my weekly shop with that arm) then I suffered significantly after. It was a WHOLE YEAR before it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't in pain and was back to normal with lifting etc. When I went for my final appointment with the BC nurse and mentioned the pain (this was after radiotherapy) her words were "it's still early days", so don't be surprised that after a week it's still very swollen and sore. (I had 80mm removed as I had IDC and 2 areas of DCIS).
It surprised me as I thought it would be like bones - 6 weeks back to normal, but clearly breast tissue is very different! Your underarm is where they took the sentinel lymph nodes, so that's to be expected too. I had a bit of cording (looks like raised lines) and I just massaged it and it went away after 2-3 weeks.
Do your exercises, but ensure you don't overdo it because you will know all about it afterwards....
You might want to join the group of ladies who also have Triple Negative Breast Cancer too. Click on the link and you'll be taken straight there.
Best wishes for your recovery, but don't expect too much of your body and try and get used to resting up for a bit.
Kindest wishes,
Lesley
Thank you Ronstar. I appreciate a week is not long. Made more difficult by not seeing people and having face to face conversations. I will chat to my BCN tomorrow as for the third day in a row s
lling is worse at end of day. Am sure this is normal and maybe I am just too darn active!
