problems with arm after rads

Same thing happend to me and my arm still hurts.  I don't have Lymphedema.  But I do see a therapist twice a week that works on my arm.  She said its from Rad's frying the nerves etc. and the way to have to put the arms over the head.  She is a lymphedma specialist has been doing this for voer 15 years and said NO to the lymphedma, thank you god.

My hand and in fingers also hurt like mad, all the nerves play a hugh part in the upper part of the arm all the way done to the fingers.

I would find a therapist, it has done me wonders.

Susie: I noticed soreness in my shoulders and upper arms three or four days into my radiation treatment. It continued to get worse and the pain would wake me up at night. After a week or so, the soreness in the shoulders eased but my lower arms started to hurt. Then my hands too. It became very painful to clench my hands. It was always worse first thing in the morning. Initially I thought it was from holding my hands over my head during rads. But when it didn't go away after a few days as one would expect with a muscular ache and was getting worse, I became concerned. Even though the onset coincided with radiation, that appeared to be just a coincidence. I just had radiation on the left breast but the arm pain was on both sides.

When I told my medical oncologist, she insisted that I go for a neck MRI. Nothing showed up. Then she had me follow up with a neurologist. By that time, I'd done some research online and found that some chemo drugs can trigger a form of arthritis. The neurologist thought that what I had was post-chemo rheumatism. He said he has seen it in other cancer patients and it usually goes away after a couple of months. He was right. It started to ease off over the summer and by October it was completely gone.

I see your chemo was TC. Since you are experiencing tingling and numbness, is it possible that it could be some neuropathy from the Taxol you received? Some of the SEs of chemo only appear after treatment is finished. At least that was my experience.

I mentioned the same thing to my radiation oncologist and he said it was due to raising my arms over my head during treatment.

Hi Susie

You have almost the same DX as me... I wonder if you had axillary dissection of nodes... my sentinel node biopsy was positive so they removed 9 more nodes. Now I'm scheduled to start radiation and was shocked that they would radiate the axilla area as well as my breast. Doesn't make sense if all removed nodes were negative. Would appreciate knowing how much radiation you had and where. Thanks.

Hi Azz: I was kind of surprised that my radiation onc didn't suggest radiating my axilla since I had two positive nodes. When I asked, she said they usually only radiate that area if there are more than three positive nodes. I had chemo prior to rads, so maybe it would be different in a patient who did not have chemo. I presume that they hope the chemo will kill any stray malignant cells in that area.

Hello Ladies

About 5 months after radiation therapy, I discovered my right arm the side that I had the lumpectomies on - that I cannot raise my right arm straight up and back in a normal motion as I can the left arm (in otherwords motion with the right arm is limited). When I try to raise my right arm straight up, I feel a tightness down my upper arm and also often I get pain in the ball of my shoulder. Also when I try to raise my arm I feel some sort of swelling appear in the pec area of the chest..

Charmaine

Hi Charmaine,

On my 4 week post rads follow-up visit with my rad onc he said that many women favor the radiated side and don't use that arm, and that they can loose motion and strength that way. He recommended exercising and gradually stretching that arm. I had been stretching since the day of my BMX (before radiation), so that helped me. I am now about 3 months out from radiation and I stretch my arms above my head and to both sides while lying on my bed at least once a day. I hope you can stretch your arms gradually so the pain you are describing goes away. If you have swelling, you should probably talk to your doctor about that.