Forum Discussion
Post Mastectomy discomfort
HI, I had a left Mastectomy end Sept 2025. I have healed up okay. However, I have always had this really "tight" feeling under my arm and there appears to be a hard area, like a muscle that has been ...
TannieT With the discomfort you're feeling it would be useful to speak to a medical person to understand what's going on and how to make it better.
If you're not keen on speaking to the surgeon, do you have a breast care nurse that you could contact to get their thoughts on what might be going on? Mine connected me to a lymphoedema therapist who I saw recently and talked about the various sensations (and lack of!) I've got going on in my arm and armpit. She showed me specific massage techniques to use which seem to be helping.
A possibility aside from the healing process could be cording. Although cording happens more with lymph node removal, it can happen after mastectomy as well. Here's some information from BCNA about cording.
I hope that you're able to get some help and relief from those pains.
Yes. I realise this and I will. But I was just wondering if others had had similar and what it was and what was done about it. That's all
You’re not the only one with that feeling! I had a single mastectomy Jan 2025 then DIEP Double August 2025 and after that 2nd surgery the breast surgeon & plastic surgeon explained where they’ve attached the tissue to the breast wall is where I feel the pulling sensation. As the nerve feelings come back, it’s actually getting more annoying/ uncomfortable - like you, I can’t lie on that side. When I do a revision later in year to clean up my incisions, the plastic surgeon says he will “snip” that a little to see if it improves the discomfort.
Not sure if we have the same root cause but definitely the same side effect (if you’ll pardon the pun)Thanks. Yes, I have asked various doctors about it and the general consensus is that it's due to all the hard cutting they had to do! NO ONE can give me any answers and they all just say it "will take time" 😠 From my point of view? I feel they definitely damaged nerves. Because the pain is definitely nerve pain. It shoots down my arm and just aches sometimes. Stretching does help a bit. But I am regularly taking anti-inflammatories. I am seeing my GP next week and will talk about options. I hope yours is able to be relieved by the plastic surgeon. I have had no reconstruction. I'm just flat
