No recon/ rads question

Melinda41

I am about to start rads and I have not had recon on my uni. My scar site is a weird lumpy mess.

I have read that rads can make implant shift and move and tighten down. I am wondering if rads will change my weird lumpy, squishy scar site?

I guess it makes no difference, I was just curious.

Leah_S

I alos had a unimast, no recon. My scar wasn't lumpy, though, but it did seem a bit tougher afterward rads. What did happen is that, although I'd had PT and regained almost complete ROM, after rads it was like my underarm area contracted and I still don't have as good ROM even with the exercises. (I finished rads Aug 09).

Leah

Melinda41

Thanks Leah,

Do you think that diligent stretches during rads will help, or is the tightening inevitable? I have full ROM now, I work in PT and do a lot of ROM activities.

I guess I should just relax and wait and see how bad it is going to be.

hymil

I had a similar experience as Leah, with a second round of tightening after rads just when I thought I had everything nice and loose, which I only just achieved in time to get "the position" to start rads. This was April/may time this year. Radiation makes a burn and it kills the cancer cells but it damages other tissue as well, and the area has to heal, and scar tissue shrinks so we need to work to stretch it out again. It is inevitable that scar tissue wants to shrink ,but that tendency also will pull the lumps and bumps flatter in time, so it has its uses! Four months out from surgery my Mx area is looking much less like a desert of sand dunes, if not quite flat enought for cricket! Very depressing process, one step forward, one step back, but keep working through it. You know the exercises, and you know they work.

Claire_in_Seattle

I had a lumpectomy so might be different in terms of movement.  Certainly full range of motion ever since surgery.  I did have some swelling towards the end of rads and noticed the area tightening.  So just did the post surgery stretching exercises in the evenings in addition to the free weights I do weekdays.

It's all recovering just fine now that rads are over.

But never more than a bit of tightness which I assumed would go away as soon as I started to heal.  I did the 45 mile course of a cycling event yesterday (4 days past final rad), and have to admit I was stiff and sore in arm/chest area when I finished.  Today, range of motion there is just fine, but wouldn't say that of glutes and legs. 

hymil

Claire, WOW! I think 45 miles in a day is a pretty impressive range of movement.... and i'm betting there's not a millimetre of wobble left in your legs and butt!

Rocket

I too had the frustrating experience of regaining ROM and now that I'm three weeks away from completing 36 rads treatments, I have experienced tightening and some loss of ROM.  I see a PT every week.  I'm also still struggling with nerve pain/damage due to lymph node dissection and now truncal and arm lymphedema.  This process is difficult -- no question.

Binney4

Melinda, when I started rads one of my rads techs volunteered the information that rads would smooth my scar, and I thought she was nuts. But it did! And I wish you the same. You do have to be a bit careful during rads not to stress the skin, so stretches and ROM have to be done gently and with respect for any discomfort it causes. I'm nine years out (man! can that be?!!) and I still have to do stretching daily to maintain suppleness in the chest, but it certainly can be done.

Rocket, bummer on the arm and truncal lymphedema -- me too, bilateral. Especially hard in summer, and the learning curve for lymphedema self-care is steep, but it really does get easier moving forward. Do feel welcome to join us "swell" gals on the "Lymphedema After Surgery" forum here.

Be well!
Binney

Melinda41

Thanks for the experience that rads did smooth you out, I am curious to see how I "turn out".