Post-chemo skin discoloration?

djd

I am curious to know if anyone else has experienced this. After I started chemo, my neck became "splotchy" right below the ear/chin area. My mom says it looks like make-up gone awry

I ignored it for the last two years, but now it is really starting to stand out! Almost half of my neck is brownish-colored.

Anybody else experience anything like this?

cheryl58

Hi Donna:

I have what I would call a "pregnancy mask" discoloration of my face. My whole face is a faint brownish-red except for about an inch all around to my hairline. To explain it better, my husband thought I put foundation on and did not spread it out to the hairline...that I just left it blobbed on there. It started during chemo and in October I will be one year out, and it has not changed at all. It really frustrates me. I asked my onc about it during chemo and she just looked at it and shrugged her shoulders...:(

Lauralynne

I had skin discoloration while on chemo, brownish patches, red areas, some almost looking black on my face. I had skin discoloration on my hands and forearms too. Mine has slowly faded over time. I finally found DermaBlend makeup to cover it up, as no regular foundation could cover it. I hope as you get further out from chemo, yours will fade too. When I complained to my onocologist about it, he was not too concerned either, but it was hard for me to deal with. Good luck. Maybe time will help it fade away.
Laura

nowheregirl

Hey D,

I just realized that I know very little about your BC even though we have been good friends for quite a long time. Sorry for being dumb but are you taking any AI's? Skin discoloration is ofen caused by hormone changes and it's one of the major symptoms of menopause. I too have got those yucky red moles mostly on my breast-abdominal area and freckles on my face are getting worse since I started hormone therapy (Tamox and Lupron). It makes me feel like I am a 70 years old woman when I look at myself in a mirror! I am pretty much ready to smash all the mirrors in my place!

Hugs,

djd

Fumi,

I had a hysterectomy and started taking Arimidex in September, 2005. But the brown patch on my neck appeared while I was doing chemo earlier that year. I was able to ignore it for all this time, but now my attention is drawn to it every time I look in the mirror! I guess that's a good sign -- all of my other concerns have melted away and now I am able to care about small stuff like my face...lol

And don't you dare smash any mirrors - it's bad luck!

hugs,

saluki

Quote:

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I am curious to know if anyone else has experienced this. After I started chemo, my neck became "splotchy" right below the ear/chin area. My mom says it looks like make-up gone awry

I ignored it for the last two years, but now it is really starting to stand out! Almost half of my neck is brownish-colored.

Anybody else experience anything like this?

---

Hi Donna,
I'm sooooo glad you posted this. I've had the very thing you are describing in my neck area and I'm 4 years out from
chemo. It's gotten so much worse that I'was really getting worried that something was wrong with me and since my Liver enzymes were so worrisome---I was really freaking out.

My liver turned out to be drug toxicity but I couldn't shake this feeling that this discoloratation was connected.

I've had chloasma on my face when I was younger, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be covered up--

This is quite different as there is such a sharp delineation
and such a broad area encroaching on my chest--quite bizarre.

I even blamed it on the sympathetic nerve blocks that were administered for my RSD since that was in the same area.

Its comforting to know that it may just be a chemo momento.

Give Cocoa a hug for me.
Susie

djd

Susie,

You have described exactly what I am seeing! I just wish it would go away or ease up - instead, it seems to get worse with time

As for Coco - here's the most recent picture of our baby:



She got her first hair-cut last week, so she looks like she shrunk. But she has personality coming out the wazoo!