Decollete and sensitive chest pain

Anonymous

Decollete and sensitive chest pain

LindaSchminda

I am 11 weeks post 'skin saving, nipple saving' bilateral mastectomy and AeroForm expanders were put in at the time of surgery. I incurred a pseudomonas infection at week 5. I spent 10 days in the hospital, and the expanders were removed after 8 days there. Now, it's been 5 weeks since the 2nd surgery. I can't get comfortable with any kind of cloth, whether it's a front closure bra, a plain camisole, even just a T-shirt rubbing up against my chest area or my nipple area. The pain is hard to describe, burning, sensitive to touch. The other areas are numb. I understand this chest area is called the décolleté. I'd like to know if anyone has any suggestions if they had this issue and what they did about it. I've tried wearing silicone pasties, but the glue is irritating after about 2 hours. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Denise-G

BUMP

Aussie-Cat

Linda, it sounds like you have post mastectomy pain syndrome, which is a nerve condition after surgery that feels like sunburn. It can last a few weeks or a long time. I am 7 months post double mastectomy and I have that too. There are a number of medications you can take for this but some of them have side effects like the Lyrica I'm taking. I wouldn't recommend using any glue in the sensitive area. Wearing soft clothes and using menthol gel from a pharmacy could help. There are other threads about this problem and you could use the search function to find them. I hope you feel a lot better soon. I'm sorry that you had complications from your surgeries.

LindaSchminda

Hi Aussie Cat,
Thanks for your reply. Do you have a menthol cream to recommend? I've seen some people say they use a sunburn pain cream like Solarcaine that has lidocaine in it. Have you ever tried a cream with lidocaine? I see a product on Amazon called Alocane, it has 4% lidocaine. Sounds interesting, but I have no clue how long it might last... nor (most importantly, how it smells)... I can't go out smelling like Ben Gay I read in the Forums that someone was doing a 'desensitizing' process on their skin using different textured materials. Do you have any experience with that? She didn't give 'particulars'. This PMPS is preventing me from wanting to wear ANY clothing, hence, not socialize. And Tylenol nor Advil don't even touch the pain I get when wearing clothing. I have peripheral neuropathy in my calves & feet in the past 3 years....(pre-BMX) tried gabapentin, and lyrica neither of them worked for me. Have you ever tried ice packs? Any result? Sorry for all the questions... maybe others will "jump in" on their experience with this PMPS. Has anybody tried CBD oil, vape or sublingual concentrate? Thanks!

Aussie-Cat

Hi Linda, it looks like you haven't posted for a while but I only just noticed that you'd asked me a whole lot of questions and I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner. I used Ice Gel on my chest for quite a while and it really helped but it affected that skin on my chest and it still hasn't recovered (it gets itchy easily), so I wouldn't recommend it. It depends how allergic you are but it would be good to try a gentle cream with heating/cooling ingredients but not alcohol, which is harsh for skin. I didn't find a cream with lidocaine made any difference to the nerve pain. I have done a bit of 'desensitising' process on my skin using different textured materials and it does help some. I'm sorry nerve pain medications didn't help for you. I haven't tried ice packs because I'm really sensitive to cold but it could help.