I was dx with triple neg stage 2, grade 3 bc in April this year. I have had 8 rounds of chemo and finished 7 weeks ago. I had great results with the chemo and my tumour disappeared completely.
I had WLE last week and I am waiting to hear the pathology results of what they removed.
Something has been bothering me for a couple of weeks…I have a pain that comes and go in my neck and shoulder and I am wondering if it could be secondary BC…I know a lot of triple neg develop secondary and it could be my case. I was wondering if any of you had experienced the same and also for those out there who have secondary BC what were the symptoms, how did they find out about it?
I am seeing my surgeon next week and I will mention it to him but in the meantime I would appreciate any comments to my post.
Good luck to all.
Hi there
firstly well done on getting through the chemo + surgery Really hope your concerns are unfounded- sounds unlikely that the cancer has spread given you responded well to chemo. However tnbc can be nasty + unpredictable so I would say get it checked out. Ask for a ct scan as you will worry yourself sick otherwise. Did u have heavy lymph node involvement? I would imagine spread to shoulder+ neck would be more likely if so but you say your dx was stage 2 so I guess not?
I had a very quick recurrence after chemo but I had surgery 1st so don’t know how I responded to chemo. There were obviously some resiliant cells on my chest wall as I was subsequently diagnosed with skin mets + my chest wall was also affected. I’ve had more drastic surger. + am surrently having rads. Are you due to have rads once you have recovered from the wle? If there is any concerns, rads could cover the additional areas. I met a tnbc lady today who was having chest wall, axilla, neck + shoulder rads following tnbc dx. She only had 3 affected nodes but her onc was taking a belt+braces approach. Just wish mine had done tge same (I only had 1affected node).
All the very best
tina xx
Hi Fighter
I am triple neg and had a left mastectomy in Mar 09 followed by chemo and rads. I started getting shoulder problems during chemo and pain in my right upper arm which has persisted. I did have Xrays which were OK and I am now having physio to my shoulder. My problem seems to be inflammation of the muscle. The onc thinks I probably strained it by doing too much with my R arm in order to protect my operated side.
Also worry can cause tension in the shoulders - I have to make a conscious effort to relax them sometimes.
I hope your surgeon will be able to sort it out for you and that your fears are unfounded. The way a lot of the info on TN and recurrence is written is quite scary but you know that you responded well to chemo.
Hi, I’m also triple neg. I had a lot of bad shoulder pain the same side as my op about 5/6 weeks after my treatment ended. I was told it was bursitis and given a course on anti inflamatories which cleared it up in no time. As I’d never had it before and it hasn’t returned maybe it was caused by my treatment!
Josie x
thanks ladies for taking the time to reply to my post.
The pain is in my opposite side to the operation and it is a dull pain that comes and goes…it feels more like a bone pain rather than a muscle pain.
None of my nodes tested positive but that was expected after 8 rounds of chemo…it might have been very different with surgery and sentinel node test done when I was first diagnosed.
I’m sure that I have read somewhere that CT scan are not so good for you and can lead to cancer…so not super keen on having another one…but I know it is the only way…or is it?
I will certainly have rads but at that point in time I don’t know how many sessions…we shall see.
Best of luck to you all.
Really hope your concerns are unfounded- sounds unlikely that the cancer has spread given you responded well to chemo. However tnbc can be nasty + unpredictable so I would say get it checked out. Ask for a ct scan as you will worry yourself sick otherwise. Did u have heavy lymph node involvement? I would imagine spread to shoulder+ neck would be more likely if so but you say your dx was stage 2 so I guess not?