Cording Pain

Sallyellen

Hi, I am new to this board and would greatly appreciate any suggestions. I live in Maryland and had bilateral mastectomy in June(for small stage one invasive breast cancer, not in lymph nodes) with reconstruction at end of September. No chemo or radiation needed thankfully. However, I have cording issues which cause me great pain and reduce my range of motion. I have been going to physical therapy 3x a week at a lymphadema center for 4 months and do exercises on my own on the other days. The cording won't break up. I have been uncomfortable like this since June and am getting somewhat discouraged(although I realize I am very lucky in comparison with many other people).

I am finally back at work and doing a little bit better. But I am still on small doses of pain meds, advil, valium. I am wondering if there is anything else I can do for the cording or any other experts to see. I just keep thinking to myself that there must be a procedure or injection that can help this. My oncologist gave me a prescription for lidocaine patches which actually help. But I really want to get rid of the cording itself.

My ps and therapist just say it will break up in time. But it is deep, runs from armpit probably to my chest and is driving me crazy. I don't go out much on the weekends and it gets a bit depressing. Thanks in advance for any help.

Binney4

Hello, Sallyellen, and welcome!

Sorry about the pain that's brought you here, but glad you found us. Cording can sometimes be stubborn. There is more information about it here:

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Cording_and_Axillar...

If you scroll down on that page you'll find a section about Elizabeth Josenhans, a German Physiotherapist who has extensive experience with this problem. Within that section there are instructions your therapist might be interested in for linking to videos that teach those highly successful treatment procedures. They are only available to therapists, as they require some prior physiotherapy training.

Sure hope some of that helps and you'll soon be pain-free and "cordless"!

Gentle hugs,
Binney

Jennie93

Hi Sallyellen, I too have had cording, and it is very painful. I went to PT for about 6 months and it didn't help any. One PT lady thought she could massage it away, (OUCH), nope, all that did was give me LE. Most of the stuff you read online says it will go away eventually. I was pretty dubious about that for a good 2 years. But I have to say, just recently, it has been diminishing somewhat, little by little. I don't do anything to it anymore. Just ignore it. But now, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. It's just a really, really, really long tunnel!