Mild LE pain?

cinnamonsmiles

I was just wondering if there is any pain or discomfort involved with mild le? If there is, how can you tell the difference between the PMPS pain/discomfort and mild le pain? My family dr. thinks I may have mild le, but I am not sure. I have severe PMPS since my bmx with snb in jan. 2011.

thanks

kathleen1966

Well I'm not sure what PMPS means.  Is it post mastectomy pain symptoms?  I do have pain in my arm from time to time with my LE.  My arm hurt after my mastectomy as well.  It hurt to the touch, as if the skin was in pain and not the inside of the arm. And from time to time while being treated with chemo, I got pain in my left rib area under my mastectomy site. I do not have it at the moment but if I do too much yard work and bending over with the yard work, I notice this area is a bit swollen but doesn't really hurt anymore. During chemo, this area would also get all red when I took my steroids so this made me certain it was from inflammation and the ribs weren't hurting. I felt no pain when I pressed on them, it was the skin that was hurting.  The arm, though it no longer hurts, feels heavy and weird and is numb in areas. Hope this helps. 

barbe1958

I have mild truncal LE and it is very painful! I know when I have to do my MLD and work on the area aggressively to get the swelling down. Hurts to do when the pain is there, but oh, so necessary! Now if I would just do the MLD every day, I wouldn't reach the 'ouch' stage!

Binney4

Cinnamon, even doctors are rarely trained to tell the difference, but they can rule out other factors. The medical professional trained to identify lymphedema is a specially-trained lymphedema therapist. Here's now to find one near you:
http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Finding_a_Qualified_Lymphedema_Therapist.htm

You'll need a referral from any doctor on your team (even your PCP) to see one for an evaluation. If there's lymphedema involved, treating it will reduce both the pain and the risk of serious infection. Please keep us posted and let us know what you discover.

Hugs,
Binney

mrsnjband

Binney has given you good advice, as she always does. I did have mild arm pain & so I went to the LE therapist. My le arm, dominant side, pain was in my bicep but her trained hands could feel the inflammed lymph nodes.  My le arm was actually smaller than my non-bc side.  I had become very protective of my arm & therefore smaller.

My best is advice is find a le therapist & have them determine if you have le or not.  NJ 

cinnamonsmiles

Well, it turns out the new post mastectomy pain occupational therapist is also a LE specialist. The right upper arm where I and my partner noticed more swelling than the right arm and had a balloon feeling sometimes, tightness, etc where I thought I had LE wasn't deteremined to be LE. But the lower arm near the elbow was suspect. She told me it was 1cm, but I didn'thave my partner in there with me so I don't remember everything she said. But she added that she didn't know if that was the way I was naturally, so she doesn't know whether to call it LE or not. It is interesting that you mention favoring your dominant side, mrsnjband, I have been doing that since my surgery on 1/11/11. She did ask when my pain started and I think I surprised her when I said,"when I woke up from my BMX with SNB in my hospital room." I have to chuckle and so did my partner when I told him my response.So here I sit on the fence.I told her I have searing pain, sensitivity to temp (air conditioning in the car blowing on that part of my arm feels like burning). She said sounded like the nerve damage.

Outfield

My surgery was 7/1/10 and I still have a lot of pain, and the first symptom of my lymphedema was pain.  That started back in about April in my arm, and a while longer ago in my chest wall. I still have never had any feeling of heaviness, I get a feeling as if I had a pulled muscle in my skin. Both LE therapists I've spoken with seem to think that's unusual, but the fitter didn't.  I've also still got the nerve damage pain like you describe in my upper arm and chest wall, but that feels like something different.