Strange armpit pain

[mrbeansmom]

About three nights ago I noticed while getting ready for bed that my right armpit was a bit sore and tender to the touch. It is not swollen, there are no rashes, no redness, and no bumps or lumps. It doesn't feel really deep in the armpit, kind of just along the surface in one spot. I mainly only noticed it the next day when I would move my arm from side to side, like across my chest or behind me. Then it seemed as though is was traveling down the inside of my right upper arm, extending about 5 inches from where I originally noticed it. During the night last night, I noticed when I slept on that side it continued down my arm, almost to my thumb, and it was uncomfortable to the point I had to roll over. Now this morning it still seems like it's from my armpit to about 5 inches down my arm. It doesn't ache per se. It's just sore when I touch it or stretch my arm. It almost feels as though there's a painful little rubber band in there stretching when I stretch. I feel pretty confident that it's not breast cancer as I'm at really low risk for it and I feel no masses what-so-ever, but I am concerned about some sort of lymph problem. Or could it be the result of a few days ago when my neck cracked really bad? I don't think my neck has ever cracked before and it sort of startled me, though it didn't hurt or anything. Thank you so much, in advance, for any suggestions. I have 6 children and I can't stand the thought of leaving them and my husband...........

[BhumikaMD]

hi,

I am glad that we were of help.

However, I would recommend that you get this examined by a doctor and take antibiotics under guidance. Under no circumstance should you press the lesion and drive out the pus as this my drive it even deeper into the tissues.

I wish you all the best. let me know if you may need any more help.

Best regards

[mrbeansmom]

Thank you again SO MUCH! The blister popped this morning (it's pretty tiny by now) and it had serum and pus in it so I can see that there was a little infection going on there. I hope that's all it was. The armpit isn't as sore as it was. I have antibiotic ointment and a band-aid on the blister now. Hopefully, this will be the end of it! Thank you again and have a wonderful day!

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

The armpit contains a lot of lymph tissue in the form of lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are a source of lymphoid tissue which helps in control of sources of infection. Due to the burns,  the lymph nodes would have been exposed to a flood of bacterias and which may have caused an inflammation at the site as well as the lymph nodes.

This may be the cause of the infection.

Did you use any antibiotics for the burn blister that you had developed?

I hope thsi helped. let me know if you may need any more information

[mrbeansmom]

Thank you so much for your reply! I don't have any infection or sources of pain anywhere else, BUT a few nights before this happened I did burn my right hand with a floor steamer thing. It blew up while I was unscrewing the plug (I thought it was cool enough), spraying hot water and steam all over my hand. I squeezed my arm really hard just above the wrist out of agony and even left pressure marks where I had squeezed it so tightly. The burn itself ended up being much smaller of a deal than I had thought it would be, but did leave my pointer finger swollen and red with a large blister (still intact and almost absorbed at this point). Nothing was near my armpit though. Feeling it again right now, it really does feel mostly in the skin and not the muscle. It's very puzzling......and annoying. Thank you again so much!

[BhumikaMD]

Hi,

From the information that you have given here, it appears to me that this may be due to some lymph node swelling or due to some muscle pull.

While, lymph node swellings indicate infection or cancer, the muscle pull may have happened due to some inappropriate posture or due to lifting or pulling the wrong way. There is some possibility that the cause may be due to sleeping posture also.

At this time, I would recommend using an OTC pain killers, pain application, hot fomentation. You may also consult your primary care physician if it does not heal by these treatments.

Please note if you may have any infections or sources of pain anywhere else?

Hope this helps. Let me know if you may have some other questions.