Hi Ladies, can anyone offer some advice about cording - does it really go away on its own and can physio help - I’m trying to massage it like the breast nurse told me to but it’s just getting worse and more strings are appearing! Thanks
It is horrible isn’t it - you have my sympathy. Yes it does go away on its own accord eventually. I found that applying heat works well before you massage. And do lots of gentle stretching exercises - walking your hand up the wall and all that. Basically all the stuff they tell you to do does seem to work evetually!
Good luck it is a very unpleasant side effect of treatment.
hey
i found i had a small lump this am, and a feeling that when i touched it i realsied it was cording, well i panicked, rand and went and saw the BCN, and confirmed it was cording
ouch, and what an odd feeling, i hadnt done my excercises for a few days, but had being doing stuf fthat was streching so im insure how i got it.
very odd.
kaz x
Mine did go. I always did my exercises and stretched as much as possible.
I know this might sound nuts but I worked up to sleeping with my arm under my pillow so it was stretched out all nighht. I know it sounds loopy.
I just noticed one day when I opened the garage door that it didn’t hurt. It was a couple of months though.
Good luck and hope you get it sorted.
Joxx
Hello,
Glad to hear from people that cording does go!!
I’ve been doing the arm exercises regularly and massaging mine for the last couple of weeks and it feels like it’s getting worse 
I also started my rads this week so am worried that it might make things worse!!
Good luck to everyone else struggling with this.
Gill x
I had cording and a physiotherapist who had just been trained to remove it. She held my arm up, massaged upwards, then pressed on an area on the underside at the top of my arm and pop - yes that was the sound it made.
It was amazing - straight away I had full extension of my arm again.
I also had cording well still have 9wks later but i must say they are improving keep stretching your arms and plenty of massage i finished rads last week the arm rest wasnt a problem i use a can of peas in my hand and swing it up and down hope this helps just bare with it and keep it moving
I had cording for 4 months which was getting more and more painful. Although I exercised and massaged, it wouldn’t go. Like someone else siad, there was no relief until the cords snapped.
Mine snapped coincidentally when I was giving birth…! I was kneeling on the floor hanging by folded arms onto the bed and obviously putting on a lot of pressure. I didn’t notice them snap (otherwise engaged in thought and pain!) but one of the first things I said to OH afterwards was that I could move my arm again. So if gentle persuasion doesn’t work, some pinging may do the trick… if you can bear it.
Jane
jane, pic is so gorgeous. xx
was you pregnant when you got dx?
Hi Ladies,
How familiar this all sounds!! It’s a really hard thing to stretch the corded tissue and it can be very uncomfortable but if your physio is brilliant, she will help you with gentle massage and exercises. I did mine every night and still do 18 months on. It hasn’t gone completely but I have full range of movement back. Perseverence is the key - we get good at that!! Best of luck. Susie
Hi Poppy
Yes, I was 15 weeks pg, altho it was a recurrence from very small cancer with no spread 6 yrs ago. Managed to have one and a half babies before it came back!
xxx
Hi Lou Lou
I got some cording, but nothing like as bad as some people get, just a few strings in my armpit. I found that really hard, vigorous exercise done frequently got rid of it, but I had to give it real welly around 5 times per day or more when it was at its worst. I followed the exercises on the Breast Cancer Care leaflet but added some more vigorous ones devised by my Pilates instructor. The reaching up the wall ones seemed to help best. Another was to lie on my back on a big exercise ball, with the ball at bra strap height, then stretch my arm above and behind my head as far as poss and hold it there for a while until I could feel things stretching, repeat 5 times. Do it again out to the side.
Good luck.
Sarah x