Can anyone tell me how long it takes for your arm to be fully operational after lymph node removal? I only had two sentinal nodes removed but my underarm is numb, my arm aches at times and I have swelling on my torso under my arm. Not fluid, it isn't squishy (well I don't think so). My arm gets very tired very quickly so I tend to try and do a lot of things with my left hand. How long can I expect to be like this?
Cas
Thanks Michelle, I haven't been to Robina for 15 years, since the railway was new and I had to walk across a very large paddock to Robina Town Centre. I'd most likely get lost now. There is a lovely physio at Paradise Point whom I went to many years ago for my back. I was put on a rack and stretched. I have to say it was thoroughly divine. I don't know if they are oncology trained but I hope there is one a lot closer than Robina. We jokingly never go south of Brisbane Road (at Labrador) because the entire family lived north of it. I now live 50 metres south of it, near Helensvale.
Cas (you're so nice Michelle, thank you)
There is an OM (Oncology Massage trained) physio in Robina - Bev Best - phone 0406 204 456. I haven't been but I believe they are just near the Town Centre (her husband also is trained.) Hope this helps. Michelle x
Hi Mona,
Yes I like the osteopath as well. I had a very sore neck and back earlier this year and a work colleague recommended them to me after he'd had a disc fusion and another disc replaced. I found them to be extremely good. That's why I went back there instead of a physio.
I think that now that I have the information it will get a lot better and if it doesn't I will be asking more questions of the doctors. I just thought oh well, it was a large operation it must take a long while to recover. I found wearing a bra to be ok in the mornings but after several hours it felt like my underarm was being tied off. I've stopped wearing bras for a while to let it all calm down again. I was only wearing very light sports bra with a light wadding filled prosthetic. I don't have large breasts (woops...breast) so a singlet top and shirt is enough to disguise lack of underwear and breast.
Janey...I will try to behave a bit betterer :)
Cas
Hi Michelle,
No, no leaflets from the Cancer Council or the osteo. I'll approach the Cancer Council for their leaflet. Robyn was just telling me what she does and my osteo had told me one of the exercises. I just need to try doing it more often and see if it helps. I didn't even know that I was supposed to elevate my arm at night.
My course was great but I lasted 4 of the 6 days and then I knew that I was making myself ill and tired so I withdrew. I didn't miss much. There was a lot of discussion that I'd already experience in my uni studies. Thanks for remembering and asking :)
Cas
If it remains numb forever I'll just have to have it chopped off :P I'm of the opinion that if it doesn't work it doesn't need to be there hehehe.. We owned a mini moke once upon a time, when we were on land, that we used to cart things up and down paddocks. Wire, salt licks for cattle, dogs for protection of stock, sort of thing. If anything rattled it was taken off and left off.
I'm getting a swelling but it isn't fluidy. Now that I've educated myself a little this morning I'll be working on doing what I should have been doing for the last 4 weeks from today onward.
Massage sounds lovely. I can move my arm very well but I can't rest on that elbow for any length of time and the arm gets tired quickly. I'm getting good at doing things left handed. I wonder though whether I need to have remedial massage rather than just the massage centre in the nearby shopping centre?
Cas
Hi Robyn, I just read your post more slowly and the exercise that you mention was told to me by my osteopath, exactly the way that you describe it but she didn't say how often to do it. I've only been doing that once a day after I have a shower. I will do it some more from today. Thank you for sharing that. I do the shoulder thing all the time because I get a sore neck from studying so I'll keep doing that as well.
It will help a lot and thanks again xx
Cas
The exercises are all in a leaflet put out by the Cancer Council - I am sure they would mail you a copy or email one. There are only about 6 exercises all up.
The surgeon was right telling you to go to a physio - they have all the post-op exercises and would have given you the leaflet. That is how I got mine.
Hope your course went well. Michelle x
The exercises are all in a leaflet put out by the Cancer Council - I am sure they would mail you a copy or email one. There are only about 6 exercises all up.
The surgeon was right telling you to go to a physio - they have all the post-op exercises and would have given you the leaflet. That is how I got mine.
Hope your course went well. Michelle x
I will google arm exercises now. Thank you for telling me about them.
What exercises? Good grief I've been badly handled. I knew I was a rush job and tacked onto the end of the poor surgeons very long operating list but I've never been given any exercises to do? No one has mentioned anything. My surgeon told me to go to physio and I went to my osteopath but there was never any mention of any exercises. I'm just so fed up with the whole situation. If I wasn't on this wonderful site I would probably die on some street corner because I fell through the cracks of our supposed health CARE system.
REALLY CHEESED OFF NOW!
