Swollen breast

Hi

i will be very interested in the replies you receive as I am in a very similar situation.

I completed my 15 sessions of radiotherapy on 6th May.  I suffered really badly with this treatment and got very severe blisters and skin breakdown under my rather large breast and on my lumpectomy scar.  It was the worst part of all of my treatment so far! I had 7 rounds of chemo and lumpectomy then radiotherapy.

In the weeks following radiotherapy my oncologist prescribed 2 lots of antibiotics just in case there was any infection as it was under my armpit and breast whitch can be warm and moist with skin touching skin. During and following treatment I used flamigel, flaminal hydro and flaminal forte as prescribed but I found Aloe Vera gel was the best for taking away the itch and mixed it in with the others.

Here I am 3 months later and although I am now healed my breast is still sore, very swollen, red in places and sometimes itchy underneath ... it is very heavy and solid. It is uncomfortable all the time and when I wear a bra I get deep indents from the bra as even though it fits well enough my boob swells and the bra digs in.  I have had to buy loads of new non wired bras trying to get something comfortable, got some but nothing is perfect as sometimes I am more swollen than other times.  But that breast is definitely much bigger than it was at all times!

it is really getting me down!  When I mentioned this 4 weeks ago to my oncologist he said it is normal and will take another 6 months or so to heal !  I am happy to have gotten rid of the cancer but oh my the radiotherapy has a lot to answer for!

It is funny because a lot of people write about how awful chemo is (which it is) but not so many people seem to write about how bad radiotherapy is so I thought I was one of the few who seemed to get it really bad!

I wish you well with your recovery and hope things get better for you soon!

take care x

Hi Sca28 welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about whats happening for you. 4 months on you would expect things to be getting back to some degree of normality for you. I am not sure it is anything to worry about but I do believe that someone needs to have a look at it for you either your GP or the Breast Cancer Team where you had your surgery. This could be the early stages of Lymphoedema in the breast which is not unheard of and that swelling would make me wonder if that is what it could be the start of/. .

Please do think about contacting the GP and getting  them to examine you. xxx 

Hi , just read this thread and would echo GRANNY59’s suggestion re getting checked out for breast lympheodema. I have this, which was diagnosed about 3 months after radiotherapy finished. I’d gone to an oncology follow up, 10 weeks after rads, and I asked why my treated breast was bigger than the other one when it had previously been a bit smaller. Seemed wrong, given that it had been scooped out (wide local excision) and fried! They agreed and also thought it was warmer than the other. So I had a course of antibiotics to rule out infection, plus referral to the lympheodema service. I also had the ‘pitting’ that you mentioned, any seams left deep indentations. Anyway the lympheodema nurse confirmed it,  and advised me what to do about it. It improved hugely by the time I returned 8 weeks later, and I now know how to manage it. It’s a rads side effect that is rarely mentioned but is listed in the booklet I was given at the breast clinic. But I don’t think oncologists generally think of it. The main ‘treatment’ was a properly supportive bra and exercise - Nordic walking or swimming - I chose the walking and have been doing it for 2 years now! 

Hope you can get it sorted, I’d certainly ask for a lympheodema referral to check it out. Love and hugs, HFxx

Hi Sca28, I have had a similar experience which I entitled “recurrence”. I finished my radiotherapy after having chemo too in March this year and had redness at the time which went away. It has now returned with everything you are describing; redness, heavy and swollen feeling and pain. I was so worried about it and so had an appointment to see the consultant breast surgeon just after my mammogram (first after diagnosis) with an ultrasound where it was confirmed that I had fluid retention within the breast. I have been referred to physio in order to manually manipulate it out by myself back into my system. It is worth getting checked out though just in case there is infection there. I just wanted you to know my recent similar experience. 
I hope you manage to speak to your Breast Care Nurse or GP about this so you can be seen to put your mind at rest as much as possible. 

Kind regards, Bekky xx