I had a lumpectomy followed by radiotherapy and chemo in 2002 and have just had my 5-year check up with mammogram and am now officially discharged from Oncology although I will still have a mammogram every two years. However, I still get a lot of pain and tenderness in the breast which was operated on. I think this is aggravated by gardening and housework, but I find it quite worrying. I read on this site that a pain-relieving gel can help and this morning I used Voltarol, sparingly, and it seems to have helped.
I’m 5 months post surgery (WLE and SNB), no chemo, but 5 weeks rads. The left boob is probably more uncomfortable now than it was earlier. I’ve still got the blue dye from surgery, breast scar is quite sore, the area around the SNB is much more uncomfortable - I’d stopped doing the exercises, but I have started doing them again as it feels as if things have stiffened up a bit recently. I regularly get pains in and around the nipple (which has never been the same since rads) and itching and discomfort under the breast.
I mainly tend to wear non-underwired bras at present, and at night M&S secret support camisoles. They do them in sleepwear (which I think is the same ones Knitnut mentioned), but also next to the other camisoles in the lingerie dept. The secret support stuff has got me through rads is probably my best buy for comfort waking or sleeping! I’ve got a larger bust so going without a bra or something supportive isn’t something I find comfortable.
I’m relieved to know I’m not alone in still having pains in the breast, though it’s a shame for all of us experiencing it. It just helps to know it’s not unusual.
You have my sympathies, Biker Babe and English Rose, with the adhesive on the dressings. I was fine post-surgery with the stuff they used (Tegaderm), but when they used it again during rads I had a dreadful reaction (I’ve still got the scars from the blisters, and it was nowhere near where they were cooking me) so have had to add to the list of adhesive dressings I can’t use. I can just manage surgical tape as long as it’s not on for longer than 20 minutes. I hadn’t thought that I should probably add it to the list of things I’m allergic to.
Gill72 - I can’t imagine that any pain and tenderness in the breast will ever stop being a source of worry after a breast cancer diagnosis, even with the 5-year all-clear (for which hearty congratulations, by the way!). I’ll have to give that voltarol tip a try. I’ve got a tube to hand.
I still get pain in my breast after 2 ops, it’s been 20 months. I try to sleep on the other side but roll over to my op side which is more comfy. Specialist said pain is normal! I wear support vests to bed and sometimes the tops made for sports that are soft with no wire. Never let them just hang loose any more:)
i was told that pain after WLE can be as much as 20% of women by the end of one year and 5% will still have pain after 5 years… not sure whether it was due to surgery or rads or a combination of both.
its 3 1/2 years since first WLE on right side and still get pain and very annoying itching within the scar line which makes the pain worse.
it 6 months since WLE on left side and dont have any problems with pain in the scar just occassional twangs which i think is just general healing… due to start rads next month so will see if it still remains pain and itch free after that.
the main problem is actually the itch more than the pain and im often caught out having a good old scratch of my boob completely unaware im doing it till i see people looking at me strangely… especially when i was nursing in a male clinic and i would be asking questions about their waterworks… maybe they thought i had an odd fetish.
anyway i take co-codamol for the pain and have aqueous cream for the itch… but also have other areas of itchy skin especially on my shins… goodness only knows why???
when i first kept getting the pains i was regularly back to the breast clinic for checks but realise its just something iv got to put up with.
Lxx
My breast has intermittently itched since I finished rads in March 2007. It’s been itching again recently. All the way through treatment I washed my undies in a sensitive liquid for people with skin problems like eczema - I think I might go back to it again for a while. It’s called Surcare and you can put it in the drawer of the washing machine; you can also use it for hand washing. I’ve noticed recently you can buy it as a washing powder as well.
When I couldn’t wear a bra I wore vests with the little secret support bit in them that goes under your bust. Mines were actually holiday tops, but I just bought them in white. They came from Dunnes Stores and were about £3. I still wear them under jumpers as an extra layer on freezing cold days, so I’ve had my money’s worth from them 
Thank you everybody that responded to my original post, I’m not too good on this site and have only just found the replies!!
I am still anxious but glad to see that many of us are still getting pain, my breast is so much firmer now too and I can feel a hard mass but this is the side that I had surgery on and the surgeon did expain that my cancer was near or under muscle so would prob explain the pain. I am going to call the breast nurse tomorrow and insist i have an ultra sound, this is really getting me down at the mo and can’t help but fear the cancer has come back. Also not feeling too good the last couple of days, could be the worry or I had the swine flu jab a few days ago…I feel so tired and weepy. I was hoping to feel much better and relieved knowing that chemo is over but I haven’t felt this yet!
Bikerbabe, i had chemo at cheltenham and start Rads on Tuesday there too, when will you start radiotherapy?
Regarding itchiness, it is usually the perfume in products which causes the itching. I have used Surcare products and unperfumed soap for years. Make sure you also use an unperfumed softener, too, like the Surcare one. The others are very strongly perfumed.
M&S also do one, which I suspect is made by the same company and frequently have a BOGOF offer. I find that the other makes which claim to be ‘pure’ and safe for babies, still have perfume in, so read the label.
The biological products all seem to be perfumed, so I avoid those, too.
Ann x
I’ve always avoided using biological stuff as my OH breaks out in a rash easily, then ends up having to use Betnovate cream to clear it us. We live in a soft water area, so it isn’t really necessary to use biological products - I also find you only need to put have the recommended dose in the washing machine as well as it doesn’t rinse out properly. Keep forgetting when I wash the dishes and always end up with too much suds - I lived in London for 20 years the water was really, really hard and scummy, so using lots of washing up liquid is an old habit.
Pleased to see others have strange itches too. My back is now a mess, all small itchy spots, I have them between my boobs too and a patch on my stomach. Its driving me mad!
Where do you get the secret support tops, I am a 32DD and cant go without a bra?
Got a date thru for the rads to start, go for the ct scan on Friday then supposed to start the 25 on 28 Dec but I am going to phone tomorrow to ask if I can postpone it until 11 Jan when they can put me in to the hotel rather than staying in the hospital. I would like a little bit of privacy and you get absolutely none in a hospital.
Spoke to Betty at the hospital this morning and managed to get the start date changed to 11th Jan, staying in the hotel. Great, I might be able to sleep!
i only get itching in one breast… the one i had surgery in 3 years ago and not the one i had surgery in this year… mine also isnt a skin itch… its actually feels itching inside my boob… if that makes sense… i just keep using my aqueous cream which does releive it a wee bit.
Hi
I had a lumpectomy on 15 oct 09 and since then have had real problems with my breast, it was massively bruised after the op and since then had tohave another ‘clean up’ op to clean and restitch. Since then again I have had leakage. Was sent for an ecograph and told there is still a hole of 20 by 25mm and the liquids are gathering and turning septic and then leaking. So am now on a course of antibiotics (2nd lot). How long before this hole closes up and will it? A definite mishape and loss of size. Also the points where the biopsy needles and other wires went in before op and very visible and itchy. And they are on the top/centre of my breast. Also find myself rubbing my breast!!Pat
I still have the mark where the biopsy was taken and it is itchy. I was told to wear a sports bra day and night for 6 weeks to get the breast in to the cdorrect shape. I’ve stuck with it and hope it works. Give it a try.