Hi
I am due to see my Oncologist on Friday 27th for a check up. I should have had a 6 month one in March but he was very busy and then I was away for a month in May/June and again for a couple of weeks at the end of July. I kept ringing and letting them know and originally was supposed to have seen him at the end of June but then it got pushed to end of August. Don’t get me wrong, I was not really fussed as there did not seem to be anything to worry about. But over the last two months I have had a constant low level headache, not enough to warrant taking anything but always there and been getting an intermittant sharp pain in the right side of my head, that side of my face and head also gets hot from time to time (I get hot flushes and this is very different) and my right eye seems a bit funny, in that I am ‘aware’ of it. I know it sounds strange but I cannot ‘feel’ my left eye like I do my right. Also my right shoulder and the right side of my neck are tender from time to time. I had triple negative breast cancer Grade 3 on the right and had an exillary clearance (5 out of 19 nodes affected with spread into surrounding tissue, completely unaffected by TAC chemo although it destroyed the 6.5 x 4.5 cm tumour). I also had three weeks of rads on that side. I can’t make up my mind, whether all this is a result of treatment, if so why hasn’t it shown up before now? Two years on from finishing treatment. Or is it something I should be concerned with? I should appreciate any comments please.
I am really sorry that you have this worry. I hope you don’t mind me posting this but this was my recent experience. I had some strange facial symptoms very soon after diagnosis in March. For around two months I had numbness, tingling and some sharp shooting pains in my face. These were around my ear and eye socket. The gp checked my ears and said there was not sign of infection but gave me anti-b’s anyway, but the symptoms did not go away.The dentist x- rayed my teeth to check it wasnt coming from them. I kept going back, I mentioned it to the bcn, surgeon, etc as I also had an enlarged node, which did not respond to the anti b’s either.
Anyway after much fuss the gp suggested that it could be a blocked eustacian tube and to try vic, as this could be pressing on the nerves in my. My nephew by coincidence has suffered with glue ear right through his teen years and has had a number of operations. He was told by his consultant to blow out is cheeks as though he was blowing up a balloon up to 50 times a day to force air through the tube. So I tried it and found that on that side my ear really crackled- much more so than the other side. So I kept doing it and the symptoms cleared up. The gp wondered if it was hayfever related. I still puff my cheeks out regularly to stop it coming back. I know this all sounds a bit trivial but I also know how worrying these symptoms can be- but it can turn out to be something really simple. Have you googled trigenimal neuraligia am not sure but it sounds a bit similar. Hope you get some answers soon. debx
The chances are that these symptoms are something absolutely harmless but you are obviously concerned about them and you do need to check them out. You know yourself that you won’t be able to put your mind at rest until then.
I’m nearly 2 years past too, most of the time doing great but every now and again…
Seen Oncologist and told him why I was worried. He said I should have spoken to my GP first. Oops, slapped wrist for me! But I was sent for a chest X-Ray, just started to get a bit breathless now and then, and had some blood taken, with great difficulty I might add, four tries for a couple of samples. X-ray was clear and Onc. has arranged for me to have a head CT scan this Wednesday and I see him again at the end of the month. At least this way I get the really worrying bit out of the way first, then I will go and see my GP! Will keep you posted, I hope the Onc. doesn’t make me feel so guilty when I see him next, but once you start worrying about things it doesn’t go away just gets worse.