Strange sensations after surgery?​

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Marie711
Marie711 Member Posts: 87
edited January 2016 in Living Without Reconstruction After a Mastectomy

Anyone else having strange sensations in the breast area after surgery? When I drink something cold I feel it in the breast area. Also when I see something that would normally make me cringe, like an accident or wound photo, I get a "tingling" type feeling in the chest... Maybe the nerve endings? I'm 3 1/2 out from the second mastectomy this year and I'm having a lot more pain in the arms and back. He took more lymph nodes but it's like the muscles are pulled in the arms.

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    I had the drinking/cold sensations for awhile.

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  • MsVeryDenseBreasts
    MsVeryDenseBreasts Member Posts: 100
    edited December 2015

    I'm 9 weeks out from BMX. I still have the sensation thing. Doesn't matter if it's cold, warm or room temp....I feel it going all the way down. Weird...like my insulation is gone.

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  • rleepac
    rleepac Member Posts: 755
    edited December 2015

    Every once in a while I'll get a electric-like sensation in the reconstructed breast. It's split-second and not really painful per se but it makes my whole shoulder and arm kinda twitch. I haven't really identified what triggers it but I'm pretty sure It doesn't happen with cold drinks. It seems random

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  • glennie19
    glennie19 Member Posts: 6,398
    edited December 2015

    Yes, that is not uncommon. One of the BCO members used to call it "the Claw". It didn't happen to me, but it has happened to many others on here.

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  • windingshores
    windingshores Member Posts: 704
    edited December 2015

    I had all of this, but it calmed down over time.

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  • sheila888
    sheila888 Member Posts: 25,634
    edited December 2015

    Marie...i have the same sensation.

    I'm so glad you mentioned it i thought it was weird....got little better but it's still there.

    no problems with hot drinks.

    Sheila

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  • VAINLA
    VAINLA Member Posts: 3
    edited January 2016

    I had a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction/implants a year ago. For a long while I didn't have any feeling around my breasts except for an occasional 'tickle' that felt like bubbly champagne running through a vein or sometime a quick twinge of mild pain - like electricity. All those feelings are gone now. No more strange sensations and much (but not all) feeling is back. I've had my husband tickle the skin around my chest while my eyes are closed so I REALLY know if I am having feeling or not - and from the results of our 'testing' the nerves are definitely starting to come back.

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  • geocachelinda
    geocachelinda Member Posts: 223
    edited January 2016

    I have a lot of itching. I'm 5 years out. The worst thing about it is that I am numb in the areas that itch! Scratching does nothing to relieve it and feels creepy.

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  • bluepearl
    bluepearl Member Posts: 961
    edited January 2016

    It is all normal and with time will either disappear or become manageable. I was scared because I had terrible pain for a year and a half and thought that was what I was going to be stuck with but read an article about a guy who had major, major surgery and it took years for it to go away...and it did. That gave me hope. If you itch in a numb area, scratch the opposite side in a mirror, Brains are funny things! It helped me. I also could feel sensations on the tip of my ears and top of my head....all nerves that were agitated during surgery....but that left. Nerves are highways with side roads; you never know where you will get a sensation!

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  • Anniekay80
    Anniekay80 Member Posts: 127
    edited January 2016

    I get all the same weird feelings too. I have a theory on the itching though.... My husband had a stroke in July 2015. He is almost 100% Back now but at first he could barely move his right side and had no control over gripping or grabbing with his hand. When he was able to communicate a little he told me his right hand itched all the time. I would sit and massage it for him and he said it helped tremendously. After a week or so he was moving everything on his right side fine but would still have that itching feeling occasionally.

    So I think we are going through something similar. The nerves all over our chest were damaged and the signal to the brain damaged as well. In a stroke it affects the brain. So I think it is like the wiring got damaged and the itching is the nerves sending out signals that are being misinterpreted by our brain. I remember when my husband first complained about the itching the doctors said that was good and a sign that the brain was healing by trying alternate routes to the nerves. So any sensation at all in an area where nerves were cut should mean they are trying to reconnect and heal themselves.

    As for the feeling every time I drink something cold, I agree that it may very well be the loss of the insulation that the breasts provided. It is cold here in Michigan right now and no matter how many layers I wear, I will first feel the cold on my chest as though I am using a cold pack on it.

    Here's hoping all these weird sensations are a sign of nerves healing themselves!

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  • Marie711
    Marie711 Member Posts: 87
    edited January 2016

    Annie, reading your post was interesting. I can't believe another couple went through stroke and cancer in the same year! My husband had a stroke that affected his right side in March, I found out I had cancer in May, and found out I had cancer in the other side in November!


    Most of my sensations have gone or at least lessened. The sensation of cold in the chest still confuses me.

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