Intense arm pain about 5 days after chemo!

Hi Harri23 and a warm welcome to this corner of the Community although I am sorry to see you joining us. I am Mike and I help out around our various Lymphoma groups.

I don’t have Hodgkin's Lymphoma but I was diagnosed way back in 1999 at 43 with a rare, incurable but treatable type of Low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma eventually reaching Stage 4a in late 2013 so although my Lymphoma ‘type’ is different I do appreciate the challenges of this journey rather well.

Arm pain unfortunately can happen, I had a completely different treatment journey but like the treatments that are used for your HL (ABVD?)..... I had some very strong chemo's........ but the pain all but went once I had my PICC line put in..... I also had 2 Hickman Lines for my 2 Stem Cell Transplants.

Our veins are put through torture during treatment...... during my main 6 cycles of chemo I was on my 2 IV pumps for over 120 hrs (I was inpatients 5 nights/6 days) and a good pharmacist friend came into to see me......... she said the she had been making up my chemo bags earlier on in the day.

She said that they call chemo 'educated bleach'....... and when they make up the bags it's all done in airtight booths with their hands in these secure gloves that you see in science filmes......... "....and we send this up to the ward and the nurse pumps it straight into your body!!!!!!....... weird but amazing"

Apart from stronger pain meds and heat pads that was all I could do until I got my PICC line in - let's look for the line to be put in soon.

Always around to help more or just to chat.

Thanks so much Mike! It’s reassuring to hear that you didn’t experience the pain once the line was put in. Im keeping my fingers crossed they will be able to arrange it before my next chemo! Otherwise Christmas will be ruined with this pain :( 

I did say ‘all but went’….. when you have a PICC in your arm you have a line running inside a the vein in your arm up and across your body then down to the top of your heart so the body can get frustrated by this foreign body in your vein.

You can get nerve pain if the line touches a nerve but on the whole paracetamol controls all this.

10 years ago next week I started my main chemo so by the time I went for my first chemo it looked like I had swallowed a brick!! It was something out of a Tom and Jerry film. My jaw had seized, my gums had swollen and we're coming up to cover my teeth. I was having great difficulty eating and was living on a liquid diet and my breathing was starting to be restricted and the pain was off the scale. I had my first blast of chemo and that got me through our family Christmas….. I even had some Christmas dinner……. but it took a good few cycles for all my pain to go…… but then I had new pain as the muscle and nerves that had been enclosed in the mass started to stretch in the new space….. actually it was at times worse

During all these challenging times you have to choose not to let everything define you….. at times you just have to push through and keep in mind that this is all temporary.

I had the same and it got so bad i couldn't bare the pain any longer, so they put PICC line into my arm and no more pain. PICC line does not come without risks, but if you are thinking of doing it go for it, it really is worth it considering how many treatments you will be having. PICC line insertion is painless, anxiety is far worse than the procedure. PICC line is a headache, can't really have a bath, sauna, swimming etc, need to visit hospital more for cleaning etc, but upside, zero chemo pain and no more needles for bloods.