Pain in Breast Cancer

JungChic

Can you share your thoughts and experiences on how to help breast cancer patients deal with their emotional and physical pain?

MelissaDallas

Do you have breast cancer?

wrenn

I was just going to ask that ^^^

You seem to be offering advise on a lot of threads and I was curious about your authority or training for this.

BarredOwl

Hi JungChic:

Is this question on behalf of your aunt, whom you mentioned in another post has had two mastectomies? (https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/83/topics/855549?page=1#post_4975822)

Are you one of her caregivers in a role to assist in arranging for medical evaluations or obtaining referrals? If a person is dealing with significant pain or emotional challenges, then they may need to seek medical evaluation and referrals to the relevant professional(s) for appropriate care. This survivorship guideline provides information about various post-treatment challenges and the types of evaluations or follow-up that may be needed.

>>Runowicz (2016): "American Cancer Society/American Society of Clinical Oncology Breast Cancer Survivorship Care Guideline":

>>Free PDF: http://ascopubs.org/doi/pdfdirect/10.1200/JCO.2015.64.3809

Her oncologist or primary care physician should be able to provide any necessary referrals. Her cancer center may also provide programs on complementary approaches (e.g., support groups; mindfulness-based stress reduction programs).

Physical pain can be caused by many different factors (see above guideline document), and the appropriate specialist for evaluation (e.g., physical therapist; lymphedema therapist; other) and intervention depends on the type of pain. Here is a post on some common kinds of post-mastectomy pain and related resources:

>>https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/91/topics/848430?page=1#post_4810192

See also, https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/136/topics/747016?page=52#post_4953461

The 2016 ACS/ASCO guideline document above also addresses distress, depression and anxiety at page 623. And here is a link to a patient information page from ASCO's Cancer.net site regarding depression, with additional useful links at bottom:

>>http://www.cancer.net/coping-with-cancer/managing-emotions/depression

BarredOwl