One sided pain after bilateral mx

Hi Mudd. This soon after that type surgery, much pain -- even severe pain strikes coming through a background of bad pain -- would be normal. The pain should diminish over time, and the more severe pain strikes should occur less frequently as the days pass. Understand, the pain medicine is to manage the steadier part of the pain -- it is not so effective for those severe strikes of breakthrough pain. The area from which your lymph nodes were taken may hurt more and for much longer than your mastectomy wounds.

Since you have just had your surgery, you would not have the Pathology Report on those tissues yet, so unless you ask your Surgeon, you would not know how extensive the surgery (as to each side) was. In my case, tissue was taken down to and including the deep fascia on each side, and there were many lymph nodes collected from the diseased side. Do you know at about what depth (inward) your tumor was positioned -- how near to your chest wall? Was a drain installed in your left side axillary area?

Use your pain medicine according to the indicated dosing schedule. Remember, the pain medicine works better to head off pain than to deal with (so far untreated) pain that has already become severe. Is yours making enough difference -- reducing severe pain down even to moderate pain level? If it is not effective enough, contact your Doctor so you can be supplied with something more likely to be effective enough. Always eat a little something and also go to the bathroom before your pain medicine dosing, so you can be still for at least the first hour or so following your dosing. Keep your medicine out of the reach and sight of any visitors.

It is important that you regularly get up, walk around some, stand up straight as you can, and do some inhalations and exhalations as deeply as you can at those times. Take great care not to fall! But I do not need to tell you that, huh? If you have a walker, use it for all your up-and-about times. Do you have a caregiver/assistance person staying with you?

Hi Mudd, I had a BMX for cancer on both sides. My left side had the smaller tumor & one less lymph node was removed. That was the side that gave me the most trouble, both with pain & mobility. The left drain caused me the most pain in the early post-op days. I woke up 2 weeks after my surgery with my right arm over my head. It took me 2 months to get my left arm over my head. Still makes no sense to me.

I made myself go for walks. It didn't involve moving my arms. The distraction helped me more than anything.

It really early & you too will heal. Not always sure what normal is. Probably not me. But I got to where I needed to be.