Is swollen breast normal after rads?

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Yogi
Yogi Member Posts: 7
edited June 2014 in Life After Breast Cancer
Is swollen breast normal after rads?
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  • Yogi
    Yogi Member Posts: 7
    edited September 2007

    I am a new member although I have been reading on this site for a few months.  I am 15 months post lumpectomy for stage 3 CA.  I finished Chemo the end of October and radiation mid Dec 2006.  I live in Germany and have received all tx from Germans so there is a language barrier of sorts.  I am experiencing what seems like swelling in the radiated breast and sometimes sensations or almost pain.  I asked my doctor about it in August and he said it was from the radiation.  I have felt very confident in the treatment I received by am feeling less confident in the check ups.  He listens to my lungs does a two second breast exam and pounds on my back and asks me if it hurts.  I had one mammogram 6 months after radiation.  Is all this normal?  Should I expect more follow up care?  Some days I feel that it was easier undergoing treatment than it is wondering if every thing I feel is cancer returning.

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  • abbadoodles
    abbadoodles Member Posts: 2,618
    edited September 2007

    Yogi, my breast was slightly swollen post rads but I had no pain.

    I think the 6 months post rads mammo is pretty normal. 

    Tina

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited September 2007

    Yogi...All of your concerns are so normal. I finished rads in 12/05 and my breast is harder and slightly fuller than the other one. I also have tenderness and sometimes pain in it. This is all completely normal and very individual. It sounds like you've received good treatment, so try to feel confident in your being cancer-free and just keep current with your follow-ups. Are you taking tamoxifen or an AI or was your tumor hormone-negative?

    ~Marin

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  • Yogi
    Yogi Member Posts: 7
    edited September 2007

    Thanks for replying, your answer is reassuring.  I am taking Arimidex.  The frustrating thing for me is that I like to fully understand things and know the 'why' if possible and in the German health care system you don't seem to be able to ask questions.  Or should I say you can ask but don't get a lot of answers. 

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  • abbadoodles
    abbadoodles Member Posts: 2,618
    edited September 2007

    Yogi, you and I must be cut from the same cloth.  So many times after I come home from a medical appt. I still have questions.  I want to kick myself for not remembering to ask "Why.....?" at the appropriate time.  I guess maybe I am sometimes too full of other input and am not reacting as I should.

    I've been thinking of wearing an engraved "WHY" bracelet at all times to remind me to ask when I have the doctor by the buttonhole, in front of me.

    Tina

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