[busymom]

Hi friends,

I have started physical therapy for cording in my surgical side arm. It is extremely painful when I try to straighten out my arm. You can actually see the "cord" stretching down the length of my arm from my armpit to beneath my elbow and the pain continues through to my thumb. It sucks! The physical therapist doesn't think it's lymphedema, however, she thinks I fall in a gray area. So, I have to be very careful to prevent any stressors on my arm. I had a SNB in January and had a large seroma which took a couple weeks to go away. I didn't have any problems until June. This is when I probably over-did it by doing lots of yardwork and running around. Oh, yeah, I also started radiation in June and will have my last treatment on Monday. My radiation oncologist thinks that the radiation may have contributed to this and may have caused some scar tissue around the SNB site?

Has anybody else had this problem? Will it ever go away? :-)

Kristin

[Gloria]

My cousin had cording, and it did go away, but she said you don't want to do too much exercise. She went to a lymphedema physical therapist. Here is her suggestion for how to find one:

The first two are for referrals to lymphedema therapists. the third is a support community. the fourth is streaming video for self massage.



1 http://www.nortonsch...rrals_form.html



2 http://klosetraining...1567&kw=6920789



3 http://www.lymphedem...ty.com/home.php



4 http://www.nwlymphedemacenter.org/

http://www.nwlymphed...vid_mngmntA.php

Hope this helps.

Gloria

[2boysmom]

I also have pain when I straighten out my arm. I can't see anything, but it feels like the tendons down the inside of my arm are being pulled on. Who did you get your referral for the PT from? I haven't mentioned it to any of my doctors, I just figured it was from favoring that arm for the last 2 months because of the pain I was having before they replaced my expander. Great, just what I want, more Dr. appts!!! UUGGHH I am going to email you later Kristin to see which PT you are seeing!

L

[Swedishbaby]

Hi BusyMom,
I had a problem with that too and was sure it was Lymphedema. I too went to Lymphedema specialist at my regular PT place and she did a lot of stretching and massage on that arm and before too long it felt great. She said there wasn't much I could do on my own as it needed manual work to stretch the cords while holding the area under my arm and massaging the arm. There was an article on Axillary web problems and I thought I posted it at one time for gals who mistook it for lymphedema. I think your therapist will be able to help and my problem didn't ever come back.You might google that and get the same article and it is helpful to know and understand the problem.

Love and prayers,
Barbara

[I wanna grow old]

Hi Kristen,

I don't have cording but have large very firm scar under my arm and also strange and tender pulling sensation. It does get worse when I exercise, and I have mentioned to my plastic surgeon though says this is normal post surgical changes. Thanks. (thats what I was thinking) Not helpful I know.
It sounds like you are in more discomfort than I am, but hope the PT will help! I would imagine heat and massage would help this to resolve more quickly.

Leslie

[happytobeme]

Hi Kristen!

I do not have cording going on but within the last few months I have had quite a bit of tingling going on with my lymph node arm. I am not sure if it is my nerves trying to regenerate or what but it is very annoying. It sucks so much that we have to be so careful with those "fragile wings" of ours. Life is not the same but at least we are here to enjoy it.

I hope you start getting some relief really soon.

Hugs,
Melinda

[Swedishbaby]

Hi Gals,
Check this out on Google. For some reason a lot of doctors and even Physical Therapists are not aware of it. I copied a portion of the article and you can check out some of the other comments. I remember copying a whole article for my PT lymphedema specialist and she hadn't been aware of it either. But she found the ways to work with it and sure got mine cleared up. I only had 2 nodes removed and both were negative so it wasn't due to removal of a lot of axillary lymph nodes, nor cancerous ones. There are articles on the therapy treatment for this also.

Lymphatic cording or axillary web syndrome after breast cancer surgery
Andrea Tilley, BSc, PT,* Roanne Thomas-MacLean, PhD,† and Winkle Kwan, MD‡
* St. Joseph’s Hospital, Atlantic Health Sciences Corporation, Saint John, NB, the
† Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask. and
‡ Radiation Oncology, Fraser Valley Cancer Centre, BC Cancer Agency, Surrey, BC
Correspondence to: Dr. R. Thomas-MacLean, Department of Sociology, 9 Campus Dr., University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon SK S7N 5A5, fax 306 966-6950, Email: roanne.thomas@usask.ca Other Sections▼

"Case reportDiscussionReferences Lymphatic cording or axillary web syndrome (AWS) refers to a ropelike structure that develops mainly under the axilla but can extend to involve the medial aspect of the ipsilateral arm down to the antecubital fossa. It usually appears after axillary dissection and can develop after a patient’s last surgical follow-up. As a result, nonsurgical health professionals such as physio-and massage therapists often manage patient care relating to AWS. To illustrate the typical clinical course of the syndrome, we present the case of a patient in whom AWS developed after surgery for node-positive breast cancer. Hopefully, our report will encourage surgeons and physiotherapists to collaborate in the treatment of this poorly understood syndrome."

They go on to give a case study, but I figured we are all case studies on this board so we didn't need another one.
Good luck with getting this treated and relieved.
Love and prayers,
Barbara

[cpk]

Hey Ladies, cording sucks! Mine started a few weeks after my re-excision and lasted about 6 months. Mine started from my breast tumor bed through my armpit and down to the bend in my elbow. I did daily stretches for 10 minutes twice a day and had PT for several months but it did subside.

I followed up my PT with 36 rad treatments and I'm a year out and am still doing well. I still feel it if I go too long without continuing my stretching but it does get better. Just wanted to post some positive results. I had two very large cords (about the size of my pinkie) and never thought they would go away but between diligent consistent stretching on my part and PT once a week for about 4 months it did get better. Hang in there!

Cheryl

[carolyn45dcis]

Shit- I'm having my sentinel node biopsy on Thursday...Now, I'm a little scared. But after my 1st lumpectomy I wasn't expecting to have an infection and have my breast swell about 3 times larger than the other one- so I guess it's good to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Thanks for all the information..

Lots of Love-
Carolyn

[mrsnjband]

Gloria,

Thanks for the video links, very informative. I think I have a bit of cording under my arm and my hand is swelling a bit. I called my bs to set up some pt with a lymphedema specialist. I don't remember where I heard this at, but I was told that most female bs believe in lymphedema and that most male bs do not. My bs has been very supportive of me from the get go & I that God she know what she is doing.

Love & prayers to all. NJ

[Cassie]

mrsnjband, on 31 July 2010 - 02:17 AM, said:

Gloria,

Thanks for the video links, very informative. I think I have a bit of cording under my arm and my hand is swelling a bit. I called my bs to set up some pt with a lymphedema specialist. I don't remember where I heard this at, but I was told that most female bs believe in lymphedema and that most male bs do not. My bs has been very supportive of me from the get go & I that God she know what she is doing.

Love & prayers to all. NJ

Here's an article about cording (it's actually called Axillary Web Syndrome, or AWS) that explains it in simpler terms, and has pictures as well. The page also has a way for our therapists to get videos of the massage technique in case they're not familiar with it.
http://www.stepup-sp...eb_Syndrome.htm

Hope that helps,
Cassie