Breast Surgery LE? Not cancer

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alicki
alicki Member Posts: 661
edited November 2016 in Lymphedema

dear all,

I hope I'm not offending anyone by posting here. I had 2 breast surgeries (one bad) on right breast due to fat necrosis.

A year later was doing some lifting. Since then, august, swelling and de-swelling over sternocostal joints and minimal pleural effusion (trauma? and arm ache + right breast slightly more swollen especially evening.

Seeing doc next week. But meanwhile, have any of you had breast/chest lymphdema set off by strenuous exercise or anything like that?

Not asking for diagnosis but just your experiences. I know lympdema can be set off by breast surgeries not done for cancer

Any feedback, much appreciated

Alicki


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  • Kicks
    Kicks Member Posts: 4,131
    edited November 2016

    LE (lymphedema) can present after any surgery or traumatic injury ANYWHERE on the body. It is not limited only to certain areas after BC surgery. it can develope at anytime - heavy exercise or not.

    About 45 yrs ago I had fairly severe lower leg injury (just tissue damage) and was told that due to the severity of damage to the skin, circulatory, and other tissue, there was a good probability I would develops LE - never have and after that many yrs I dou t I every will.

    I have a friend who had non-invasive knee surgery - she deals with a lot more LE issues than I do with having had 19 pos. nodes removed.

    In other words - it is the trauma to the body that may or may not 'trigger' LE - it is not cancer that does it.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited November 2016

    ALicki - yes it could be the exercise. And unfortunately LE can present itself any time - even years later. Hope you can get a referral to a trained LE therapist. There's lots of good information at this site.

    http://stepup-speakout.org/


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  • alicki
    alicki Member Posts: 661
    edited November 2016

    dear ladies,


    Thanks.

    Alick

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  • hugz4u
    hugz4u Member Posts: 2,781
    edited November 2016

    alicki if you do end up having LE you still can ask your questions here because treatment would pretty much be the same way whether you have or not have LE post cancer complications. Also the above mentioned website is a really good one. Some of the girls here developed that website. Sweeties they are giving up their time to help us.

    Also your doc may not know about LE so do let us know what doc says as they spent under a hour in med sch learning about lymph system and pretty much forget about it unless you have a limb/body part blown up really big that screams lymphedema. My doc laughed at me when I mentioned it to him. Don't be intimidated.

    Looks like kicks doc was right on top of it,she was very fortunate to have knowledgable doc.

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  • alicki
    alicki Member Posts: 661
    edited November 2016

    ok thanks. I think it's that but doc (Gp) ignored it

    Cos said I didn't have any lymph nodes removed.

    Dumb... I had a butchered reduction and then over exercised a few years later.

    MRI on Monday, let's see what that turns up

    Best

    Alick

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