burning arm pain with expanders wont let up.

pamalot

It has been almost 6 wks since my mastectomy with expanders. I am STILL in pain! Nobody told me how painful this was going to be. My PS refuses to give me more lorazepam..."Advil should be enough." Why does my arm have burning pain and what can I do to make it go away?

DeliriumPie

Hi Pam. I have burning in the back of my arm from shoulder to elbow. I alsi see a lot if sumilar posts. I was told it is nerve damage. Massaging it provides temporary relief for me. Did you have lymph nodes removed?

juliaanna

Sometimes neurontin/gabapentin can work on nerve pain. Have you had any fills? Sometimes the TEs are sitting on nerves and once they are inflated a bit, the pressure is relieved. If your PS won't give you meds to help, check with your Primary MD or your oncologists. Being in pain is not acceptable..and the docs don't always have any concept of what we experience.



Best wishes

pamalot

Thank you for responding. I saw my PE yesterday and he prescribed gabapentin for the nerve pain. He also said my TE could be causing the arm pain. I chose not to have more saline added this week.

I also had a lymph node removed.

The gabapentin seems to help so far. At least it did last night. You mentioned nerve damage. Could this be permanent from the mastectomy?

GrammyR

Pamelot- sorry your having this pain. I had it too,it transversed below the implant going to my

. Part of the underarm was numb and still is 7 years later. The nerve pain under the breast gradually went away. Maybe a year. Never worn underwire bra since then. Go with what ever is most comfortable.

bluepearl

THIS, chronic pain is why I will decline breast reconstruction. I had it for two years after the first mastectomy and fortunately that went down quite a bit. It is very manageable now. So, I will let sleeping dogs lay.

cinnamonsmiles

Pamalot:

It is impossible to predict IF or HOW LONG nerve damage pain takes to recover. 

I am 4 months shy of being 3 years out from my bilateral mastecotmy w/no reconstruction and lymph node removal and I STILL have such bad problems with the surgical neuropathy from the surgery that I still can't even function around the  house (and now after my July 2013 lung surgery, I am the lucky winner of more nerve damage!!)

I still need multiple medications and Lidociane IV Infusions every 9-10 weeks for pain. 

Others never get this, some get it worse, some not so bad, some heal up quickly, some drag on for years. And not even doctor's can predict if and when and how much recovery each person will get.

I didn't have reconstruction but it is possible to have neuorapthy from nicking nerves AND have breast recontruction pain or have one without the other. Basically, it is a crap shoot who gets it or not and how much.

I am terribly sorry to hear of you having these pain problems.

I would suggest you make an appointment with your Breast Surgeon (I would not suggest the plastic surgeon because I have read of many women who's plastic surgeons poo-poo or ignore their pain, especially if it is from nerve damage. I am sure that there are good PS's out there, not saying they are all bad or that yours is) and discuss your possible nerve damage.

I would write down EXACTLY and as SPECIFIC as you can be as to WHERE you feel pain, WHAT the pain feels like (use a lot of specific, descriptive adjectives, the more the beter), WHAT makes it WORSE, WHAT makes it BETTER and any PATTERNS to pain (better in the morning, worse at night, etc). That way you will be less likely to forget anything when disussing it.

There are medications and treatments out there for surgical neuropathy, most come with some side effects, but like everything else, everyone handles them differently.

I hope you start to get some relief.