Muscle tightnes

Brownnurse70

Post mastectomy having shoulder and neck tightness. No lymphedema but miserable.Anyone with this ? I am going to physical therapy but frustrated with progress.

Cpeachymom

Hi brownnurse-

Yes, I feel your pain (literally!) I also am going to PT, and progress is slow. But I do the stretching every day, exercises every other, and at least I don’t get tingling down to my fingertips anymore, so there’s some progress. I hope things get better for you!

DebAL

yes, keep going to PT. They will reinforce home exercises, maybe add a few knew ones. She massaged my shoulder blade/ armpit area which helped me with the movement. It will get better but it does take time. Warm showers helped me and I stretched twice a day Hang in there!

Egads007

Brownnurse - after my surgery and during rads one of the techs asked me what I was doing about my shoulder issues. I was very aware of the neck and shoulder pain and spoke to my MO about it but was offered nothing in the way of PT or any other advice. I found the following online booklet myself published by Umich. After a 1-2 weeks my problems were so much better. Not sure if it’s the same as your PT, but might be helpful. It’s 86 pages but you can scroll down to page 50 for the exercises:

http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/files/breast-surgery-handbook09.pdf

Hope it helps, and that you find relief soon