I was dx in jan 04, WLE, chemo’ rads’ and now tamoxifen.
Many years prior to dx I suffered a very serious injury to my arm on affected side, which resulted in emeregency surgery as the circulation had been cut off in my am [compartment syndrome], this left slight permenant damage [muscle weakness, slight loss of feeling in little finger]
I work as a nursery nurse with 0 - 2 age group so involves lifting…I’ve had my arm checked a few times since dx due to feeling to tightness…but measurements were ok.
Over recent months I’ve sometimes experienced what I can only describe as cording in affected arm…not as bad as after surgery…but I can definetly see/feel the cording.
My GP yesterday also signed me off work for 2wks as I have acute tendenitits in the wrist of my affected side.
Can anyone give me any advise as to wether I ought to get my arm checked out by BCN ? there is no evidence of swelling?.
Sorry to hear that your arm is playing you up. I definitely think your first port of call should be your bcn, particularly as your arm was not 100% before bc - and you have a job which involves quite a bit of lifting.
Did anyone measure both your arms (baseline measurements) before surgery? If they did, that would be helpful, as another set could now be taken and the two compared.
Even if there is no sign of swelling, I believe there is something called sub-clinical lymphoedema, which might account for your discomfort. I can;t remember much about it, but I think it requires rarely encountered sophisticated measuring devices (such as bioimpedance, tonometry - hope I’m remembering these terms correctly) to be detected.
Prevention is better than cure (there is none) with lymphoedema - go for it, seek advice/professional help, don’t be fobbed off until you get a definite answer. I get tennis elbow in my lymphoedema arms and each condition aggravates the other, so do rest your arm while you are off sick.
Went for my check up with the physio at the oncology centre this week to progress the connective tissue stretching for the cording and asked if i could get lymphoedema in my chemo arm as it had developed swelling after i had been decorating (trying to avoid to much trauma to my WLE arm) The swelling has now subsided but the veins feel like cords and she says she is treating an increasing number of chemo patients with connective tissue stretching. She doesn’t think the lymphatics are affected but feels the venous return has been affected so has started to give me some connective tissue stretching as a preventative measure. She is also going to ask the lymphoedma specialist for her thoughts.
Will let you know if she comes back with any pearls of wisdom