Lymphedema symptoms?

Rox30
Rox30 Member Posts: 5
edited July 2016 in Lymphedema

Hi, I posted in another forum but hoping you guys can help. I've recently felt swollen in my underarm. A certain way I hold my arm I think I may feel a lump in the top of my underarm. It feels kind of like a muscle though, long and thin. I saw my plastic surgeon a few weeks ago and he felt some edema and fluid in my breast, although he didn't say I have lymphedema. I'm waiting on a call back from my oncologist and I'm just wondering if anybody's lymphedema presented like this? Also, I had a BMX in November 2014,stage 1a 0/1 nodes affected and er/pr+. I've been on tamoxifen since December '14

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  • paintThesky
    paintThesky Member Posts: 56
    edited June 2016

    Hello.....I had it in my arm slightly for many years. Everyone is different. My arm would ache and hand too. Then last year year mine showed up under my breast cancer side armpit. It wasn't hard, it was spongy like. Then it migrated into my entire trunk area. Could it be cording? I don't really know much about it, but I have heard and read a little.

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  • Rox30
    Rox30 Member Posts: 5
    edited June 2016

    thanks for the reply! After reading about cording I don't think that's what it is. I'm scared because it's on my cancer side and I don't feel any swelling on the other side. My right arm is my dominant arm as well, and I'm hoping maybe I have more muscle on that side? I'm just praying for anything besides a recurrence at this point. My underarm stays swollen, but I can only feel the "lump" when I hold my arms straight over my head.

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  • Metta
    Metta Member Posts: 84
    edited June 2016

    Hey Rox, I'm going through something similar now, and I'm freaked out because it's on my cancer side, too. Yours sounds like cording to me, but you're right to check out any change. I guess lymph nodes can be long and thin (they're usually oval-shaped in all the diagrams). My two-centimeter cancerous tumor in my armpit was round, though, like a pea. Maybe that's why two OB-GYNs told me "this is not cancer." It wasn't spiky or craggy the way my breast tumor felt.

    Please keep us posted. I have a bump under my arm (possibly just a pimple or ingrown haIr?) and pain, like a strong aching and pulling sensation. I felt the same pulling sensation two years ago before I was diagnosed. The thought of getting a port again, losing my hair, falling into cancerland again ... It's too much to bear. I have an appointment with my MO on Thursday. I hope your MO or surgeon can see you this week, too. Hang in there. We are tougher than we think. There are women here who have walked this path before us.


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  • Jennie93
    Jennie93 Member Posts: 1,018
    edited June 2016

    My LE is just that, a swollen spot right in front of, sometimes into, the armpit. If I stick my fingertips into my armpit, my palm is cupping the swollen area. It's sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller (completely random as far as I can tell) and when it's bigger, I cannot put my arm down flat against my side. The swelling is in the way and it hurts to put any pressure on.

    I do also have cording, but that's a very different thing.

    Rox, I also had a couple of lumps in the armpit. Because of my history, they got ultrasounded to see what they were. The first time it was an enlarged (but normal) lymph node, and the second time they couldn't see anything even though everyone could feel the lump. So it was probably the LE. Anyway, not cancer.


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  • sjeilers
    sjeilers Member Posts: 12
    edited June 2016

    My lymphedema started under might right arm that I was diagnosed on. It was there for almost 6-9 months before it moved into my arm. I think mainly it moved because of an overseas flight I took.

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  • Rox30
    Rox30 Member Posts: 5
    edited June 2016

    thank you all for the replies! I actually saw my breast surgeon this morning and they could feel nothing, although I still feel like I can feel a lymph node in my underarm. They did feel some fluid on my breast, so it's possible I have truncal lymphedema. No ultrasound today, but told me to come back if I'm still worried in a few weeks and they would do imaging.

    Metta, praying your bump is just an ingrown hair or something else b9! Jennie93, I'm hoping what I'm feeling is just from lymphedema like yours!

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  • ChiSandy
    ChiSandy Member Posts: 12,133
    edited June 2016

    Rox, might that be a seroma from your sentinel node biopsy? They can stick around for quite awhile, waxing and waning. And I have visible cording in my armpit, though the invisible part sometimes extends down into the inner forearm. LE massage by a certified therapist, along with stretching exercises, can sometimes break it up. When my forearm cords “popped,” a few days later I could see a tiny bruise where each were. BTW, it’s not true that thin women get cording while obese women get LE. I am mildly-to-moderately obese, and I got both (stage 0 in my arm). And I know very thin women with LE.

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  • Rox30
    Rox30 Member Posts: 5
    edited July 2016

    Chi sandy, thanks for the reply. I don't think it's a seroma because it's more on the top of my underarm, and the SN was taken at the bottom. Does anyone know what the risks are for lymphedema with one node removed and no radiation? I'm scheduled to see a therapist soon for the swelling and fluid in my breast. Just wondering if it's possible to go into my arm?

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  • Jennie93
    Jennie93 Member Posts: 1,018
    edited July 2016

    Rox, it is possible, but not very likely. There are women who have full-blown LE who had only one node out and no further treatment, but that is very rare. There are also women who had 20-30 nodes removed, had chemo and rads, and still never got it. You just never know. That's why even low-risk people like you should still take all the common sense precautions to avoid what triggers you can (you know the drill... no BP or needles or bug bites or sunburn or heavy lifting or massage, etc etc etc) but don't let it take over your life, try not to worry, your chances are very good.



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  • ChiSandy
    ChiSandy Member Posts: 12,133
    edited July 2016

    I was told that with “only” 4 nodes out I was at most a 6% risk, yet here I am (still stage 0, hope to stop it there). Additional risk factors, sad to say, are radiation to ANY lymph nodes in that quadrant, not just in the axillae; cording; and obesity.

    That being said, my LE doc (the top guy in the nation) says he ordinarily never prescribes compression for anyone who’s had as few nodes removed as I did. He says ordinarily “no needles, I.V.s, tourniquets or BPs” on that arm--but says it’ll be perfectly safe for me to get a cortisone shot (or even tendon-release surgery, provided tourniquet time is minimal) in my R hand. As for compression, he says basically to take reasonable precautions: if I expect to go out in very hot weather, experience rapid or prolonged air pressure changes or engage in repetitive arm-movement exercise, heavy lifting or have to drape my arm over something (like a guitar body) that can constrict it. Normally, the rule of thumb is that compression is unnecessary on flights shorter than 4 hrs., but I noticed a bit of finger tightness on a 2-hr. flight w/in Europe, so I wear compression for flights of any length now, skyscraper elevator rides, or high altitude.

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  • SusanSnowFlake
    SusanSnowFlake Member Posts: 165
    edited July 2016

    This site has information about LE that can help

    http://www.stepup-speakout.org/

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  • LymphActivist
    LymphActivist Member Posts: 64
    edited July 2016

    When lymphedema is usually discussed it is understood to be the swelling of the arm nearest the breast surgery. But lymphedema also affects the operated breast after a lumpectomy and the chest after a mastectomy. It also commonly affects the trunk, underarm and back for the same reasons--disruption of the lymph drainage from those areas with removal of as few as one lymph node, and radiation of the breast and/or axilla. Breast and truncal lymphedema are not widely recognized by the medical staff, but is well known by lymphedema therapists. Read up on breast and truncal lymphedema on my LymphActivist's Site at http://www.lymphactivist.org/breast_lymphedema_for_therapists.pdf

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