under arm & ribs---help?

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ketch
ketch Member Posts: 157
edited June 2014 in Lymphedema

I had 9 nodes removed on left, 3 on right (thankfully all were clean.) My surgery was Jan. 12th. This may be normal healing & may not. So I need some help. Most time during the day, I am fine. Some days though, it feels like a tennis ball ball is under my skin about 3 inches down from my underarm. The right side is the worst, where the 9 nodes were removed. No sign of seromas, just the feeling of a ball, a painful on, at that. |Same on the right side, but not as bad.

This worsens at night. I tend to side sleep. I will roll to my side & awake in pain. My ribs on my left side are terribly sore most of the time regardless of sleep position. It feels like I've been punched hard! It seems to cramp.I can't really tell if it is swollen since I can feel my ribs.

The tennis ball feeling does feel swollen, but not thr rib.

No arm/hand swelling at all.

Is the Lymphdema? Or, am I still just healing?

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  • Cats134
    Cats134 Member Posts: 131
    edited February 2012

    Hi Ketch,

    I had a PBMX on 12/19 and I'm still have 'beanbags' unde my armpits.  They are also hard and numb.  (I had 19 nodes removed on right, 9 on left).  I'm a side/tummy sleeper yet when I try to sleep on my side, unless I prop myself up with pillows, it feels like I'm sleeping on a brick.  

    Your rib cage pain may be from the drains.  My right side hurts terribly at times and I can almost trace where the tubing was in my body.  Scar tissue formed around that too.

    Can you get a script to see a lymphedema specialist?  I go to a physical/lymphedema therapist 2x a week. On my first visit, she took measurements so if I think I am swelling, we have a baseline.

    hugs,

    Cats 

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