I am 5 yr now so thank the Lord cancer free, at the moment I am in hsp with chest infection and nurses taken about 6 lots of blood different times not using tourniquet, as other arm now has the cannula in. I told them today I don’t want anymore done in that arm, a lady told me 3 yrs ago as long as I have waited 2 yrs before using that arm. All of a sudden for no reason I am scared have I done wrong
Hello Jasper,
I’m sorry you didn’t get a reply earlier to your concern. I hope by now that you have settled down and feel more relaxed about the bloods being taken on your ‘side’ that had the BC treatment. I don’t think you need to be scared at all, infact in the last few months I was told by a medical professional in the field of cancer treatment that ‘having nothing done in that arm’ forever more was a fallacy persisting in the medical field. It used to be that way that this arm was avoided for all BC surgeries, but new research has shown there is no reason to avoid that arm and infact someone I know queried this in hospital recently during chemo, but the arm was used after explanation. Those medics who have apparently done far more modern/recent training aren’t taught to avoid that arm in all patients. The only examples I have asked about is for those with sentinel node removal along with lumpectomy and mastectomy, and not for full node clearance - so I don’t know if the advice is different for those people. Please feel free to correct me anybody else who comes along with information which could help on this post 
I hope you are improving now after your stay in hospital
Hi jasper…I have had nodes removed both sides over the years…I have my bloods done every 6 months and never have a problem … practice changes all the time…hope you recover from your chest infection soon