anyone familiar with post masectomy pain syndrome

[simplyhere]

Hi there. Hoping someone can help. I had a partial masectomy with lymph node dissection last april for breast cancer. I then went under an extreme radiation regime - double dosed twice a day for 10 days. All was fine until about 4 weeks ago. I have developed an extreme pain the breast I had surgery on. It was swollen, red, hot to touch, ripply skin. Went to emergency. they thought it was mastitis and put me on antibiotics for 2 weeks. When it still wasn't better they did a skin biopsy and it came back with no signs of infection but full of imflammatory cells. No one knew why. All the dr.'s that I have seen seem to think this is in my head because they have never seen anything like this before. My onc. said I was suffering from extreme radiation damage but to what-who knows. My surgeon wonders if it could be this post masectomy syndrome. All I know is that I can not laugh, cry, sneeze, cough, burp without crying in pain. I can not go out cause the pain stops me. Most days it hurts just to breathe. I am running on empty because when I try to lie down to sleep the pain is like knifes, hot knifes, plunging through me and it makes me physically sick. I know something is wrong and I am scared that by the time they figure out what, I may be dead! Any ideas from anyone on some pain control for me? I've done morphine, tylenol 3, codiene and some anti inflams. nothing worked. Please I really, really need help! Thank you.

[embla_2010]

It sounds like there is two or three things you need to do.

One is to figure out how to manage as much of the pain mentally as possible.  It is really important to get your body on board and try and see how far you can come with just that.  

That being said, in many cases of Chronic pain, that is not enough and it doesnt sound like they have tried very many things with you.  

I have heard a lot of people say *myself included* that morphine doesn't do much unless in high doses and even then it makes a lot of us nauseous.

T3s are on a weak side of the scale, although they are a good thing for doctors to have to dispense for mild/med pain.  

If you have inflammation I would wonder if Hydrocodone/ibu.,  either vicoprofen (can't remember if hats spelled correctly) or hydro/ibu compound.  

The next step up from that would maybe be very small amounts of pure Oxy maybe taken with ibuprofen.

Those sound like the logical steps, but of course again you have to try and manage as much in the mind as possible.  I do understand that, that strategy is not completely successful for everything nor can it be.  But its important to do as much with it as possible.

[here4theinfo]

Try another doctor that will give you more accurate information and you probaly should be on something stronger for the pain. My mother in law has been going through radiation therapy for cancer, and she is on a ton of medications, that Im afraid she will never get off of, but with her pain, she needs it. Good luck to you, I hope they figure out what it is quickly!!

[Jaybay]

Anyone who deals with long-term chronic pain has a huge mental challenge.  This kind of pain messes with every area of life - as you know from your own experience.  Pain meds can only go so far, and "pain management" means a whole lot more than popping pills and waiting for your pain to go away.  I strongly recommend you look for a pain psychologist - yes, they do exist!  Mine has been a Godsend for me and I now have some additional tools for those days the meds just don't work, and my life is no longer defined by my pain.  Seeing a pain shrink isn't just sitting in a room whining about your pain - there's a lot more to it.  Since pain affects us physically and mentally, why not treat both?  Can't hurt, might help.