The biggest news of the day is perhaps that the results of the reevaluation of my HER2 status (the HER2 FISH test) came in today and nothing has changed! I’m still considered HER2 negative, which is a relief.
Also today I had a follow-up appointment with my surgeon. She says I’m healing well! I do feel like I’m healing well although I still have the numbness and some pain.
Although the pain is tolerable, it’s definitely still there and problematic at times. The pain has changed since the beginning of recovery, which I think supports that I’m healing well. Rather than most of the pain being in the incisions, now it’s mostly in the breast itself, the armpit and the upper arm. And, of course, the numbness still exists in other places in the breast, armpit and upper arm.
Following my surgeon’s instructions, recovery started with three days of Percocet, then I switched to Tylenol. After recovering for about a week, I stopped the Tylenol to see what the pain was like without it. Since it felt tolerable, I’ve stayed off it because I’m on a lot of medication and I like when I can reduce that. Interestingly, I was very nauseous the day after stopping the Tylenol. I know Tylenol doesn’t have withdrawal as such, but I wonder if it was a reaction to me stopping the medication anyway. I tend to be sensitive to medications and have withdrawal much more often than my docs expect. Who knows? It could have been anything. I just find the timing suspicious.
Anyway, I asked my surgeon about the pain today. She assures me it’s all normal healing pain. I asked if I should be stretching or something help improve it. The internet warned me about notable post-lumpectomy muscle tightness that occurs from underutilizing the arm after surgery. It’s called cording and it can be difficult to remedy. I had started gently stretching my arm and trying to use it more in case the pain was from cording.
As an interesting aside, when I was a massage therapist, I worked on a client with severe cording. It was so tight, she could barely lift her arm. Her doc told her the only remedy was surgery. She wanted to try massage first. I recommended she come in weekly and for an hour each week, I’d work on just her arm and related areas. It took a while, but after a few months, she regained full range of motion and had no more pain. That is likely the work I’m most proud of from my days as a massage therapist.
Anyway, my surgeon said the pain is actually from the inside of my arm, armpit and breast being agitated from surgery, as well as movement in the time since — not muscle tension. She recommended I go back to wearing the chest binder they put on me during surgery instead of a bra so that I can use balled up washcloths under the binder to apply pressure to the armpit incision. She also recommended I minimize use of my right shoulder, as apparently even small movements can agitate the area.
Now I have the binder on again, with the balled up washcloths underneath. A couple days into recovery, I purchased a sling to help me resist the urge to use my right arm. So, I’m back in that as well. I guess my body wasn’t ready to return to normal usage even though my brain is definitely ready for it. (Story of my adult life, lol.)
Among other limitations, minimizing use of my shoulder means using my computer as little as possible, so for the foreseeable future, I’ll likely be using my phone for internet stuff unless I need to do something for work or something else that can’t be done with the phone. In fact, I’m writing this blog post on my phone. I am using my right hand but not my shoulder, so hopefully that’s okay. Although I can feel fatigue in my shoulder, so maybe I’m using it more than I think and should be more careful in the future.
The next appointment with my surgeon is a six month follow-up in April. Before we left the building, we stopped by radiation oncology to make my first appointment with them. I love that all my cancer docs are in one building.
Finally, a little update to my previous post, Increased Heart Rate While Recovering From Surgery.
I conducted an experiment on Monday where I tried lying in bed fully horizontal — rather than partially sitting, propped up on pillows — as much as possible throughout the day. As a result, my resting heart rate was significantly lower and more like normal. Classic POTS, so I guess the surgery aggravated my orthostatic intolerance.
Next up cancer-wise is my medical oncologist appointment on October 29. That will hopefully be when I find out for sure about chemotherapy.
Thanks for reading, friends! ❤️ If you need me, I’ll be over here in my binder, trying to lie flat and avoid using my right arm as much as possible. 😆