I had the sentinel lymph node biopsy last week and am in a lot of pain. I was just wondering what peoples recovery time was like for this
The first thing i remembered when i woke up was the pain which suprised me as i always assosiated day surgery with minor operations that dont cause any prolems or pain! How wrong was i about that!
Its been a week and the pain is awful, its not swolen or bleeding or leaking or anything like that but i am getting shooting pains in my back and shoulder which feel like electric shocks! I can not raise my arm at all and can not sleep on it.
I was told to expect pain and look out for signs of infection etc and i dont seem to have any problems when you look at it but the shooting pains i am getting are horrible!
I am trying to take it easy and not do much but i find when i do anything or move it at all i end up with an ache that lasts for ages across my arm, back and chest a little bit!
Its only been a week so maybe need to give it chance but i just wondered if this is a normal sort of thing after this operation!
Thanks
I have to say I wasn’t in pain. It was obvously very sore, couldn’t move very well for a couple of days, but wasn’t throbbing, & didn’t hurt if I didn’t move, didn’t need to take any painkillers at all. Had WLE & 2 lymph nodes removed. I did get sciatica (am prone to it) which was bad. I think this was probably due to being manhandled & in probably a funny position when unconcious. I’m wondering if some of your pain is due to being manhandled & trapped nerves. My sciatica went after about a week & a half. By following the recommended exercises I got movement back really quickly & healed well. 8 weeks on I’m still a little tender. It does take time but you do sound like you’re in a lot of pain. You should contact your breast care nurse & say you’re getting more pain than expected. I remember having a pulling pain when I moved sometimes round the back level with the breast & thought it was a stitch pulling but nurse told me it would be a muscle as when they take out the lymph nodes it’s a bit like an elastic band & it goes ‘ping’, but it went off after a couple of weeks. I wasn’t a day surgery case though, stayed in overnight & could have stayed in another day if I’d wanted.
Hi, thanks for all your feedback. I was advised to stay over but went home the same day as i thought i felt fine but when the pain killers wore off it was a different story!
The general pain is a tight pulling pain that aches all the time but the pain killers help a lot, the other pain is not helped by pain killers and only happens randomly and feels like a sharp electric shock in my back.
It does spund like the nerve pains mentioned above so hopfully will get better soon. I get the results tuesday so can get some advice then as well