Scar tissue pain

sparrowhawk

Any tips or tricks? I can feel a lump at my surgical site which I've had scanned. No fluid or abscess. My doctor thinks it's inflamed scar tissue.

It's been pretty painful. Any help would be great. I had my surgery just under two months ago so there's probably still a lot of healing going on, but the last couple of weeks saw increase in pain (hence the check-up).

mudd

I have a similar question -- I'm one year out of a bmx and on the cancer side I have a pinpoint spot on the scar line, no lump or bump or redness, but a very specific spot that hurts. I'm terrified its a reoccurence. I've tried ice and heat and a little cortisone cream in case its a skin irritiation but its making me crazy. I also scheduled appointments to have it looked at. Anyone have anything like this?

ksusan

First have your MO evaluate it. Don't hesitate to push for a biopsy if you're not satisfied with the response.

If it's benign, talk with a PT or massage therapist who can assess whether you have an adhesion. I've received myofascial release and scar adhesion massage for about 3 years now, with good outcomes for pain and bumps.

notmytime2

New to to site, but I am searching for similar information. Lumpectomy 1 sentinel node removed, on Dec 3 2018. Radiation treatments finished 1 week ago. My concern is a 4 cm × 4 cm lump that is swollen painful and bruised skin around the surgical scar. My tumour was deep by the chest wall, .5 cm, DCIS with a tiny bit of invasive cells around edges. A second tumour .25 was benign ( no cancer ). The Sentinel lymph node was negative for breast cancer, and margins were clear surrounding small tumour removed. But ...

I wake up every night whenever I move positions, and my new growing lump causes pain all day and all night. Reported the growing lump to the surgeon before radiation treatments (and he decided hematoma - almost 4 months later.) Reported painful growing lump before radiation treatment to radiologist. He said, 'don't worry.' Went to see radiologist yesterday, he said 'must be scar tissue.'

But the nurse who saw me before the doctor said, I wonder what he will say is causing this. So I started to think, and search. There is a term I never came across before, suture granuloma. It occurs right below the surgery site, is a hard tender lump that can occur from the dissoluable stitches. Your body forms a cyst of immune cells surrounding the foreign material left after surgery. To complicate the search for the source of a painful growing hard lump, I was diagnosed with CLL SLL in May 2018 and then breast cancer June 2018. So I have a compromised immune system, and the lymph node biopsy showed a well developed disease for the leukemia / lymphoma.

With my new information, suture granuloma, I am going back to my GP and asking for an ultrasound. Radiation shrinks, shrinks cancer tumours, so if you go through 3 weeks of radiation and the area grew bigger, and is more painful, I think I will continue to look for the cause.