Bianca, I waited until the redness and sensitivity to touch in the radiated areas had gone away then I started tissue massage.
I follow Erica a breast cancer survivor and Chiropractor on you tube for guided massage techniques. Here is one on scar massage for radiation fibrosis. https://youtu.be/FXivikdLInM?si=ltfsjzPq2lV1ddhT

As far as pain and discomfort, it's totally normal to still hurt for a long time after surgery. Nerves have been cut that may or may not regenerate and they've cut out 6 chunks of your breast while removing those 3 tumors and lymph nodes. The damage to your nerves and breast tissue will hurt and scar tissue can hurt too. The majority of healing for any surgery takes place during the 1st couple of months, but it takes about a year for your body to heal as much as it's going to heal and for your body to reach its new normal after any surgery.

You should be having follow up appointments every 3 months for the 1st couple of years with your regular oncologist. Be sure to tell them about any painful or annoying side effects you might be feeling as a result of your surgery and radiation. For some people, myself included, the pain never goes away. It's a fairly common occurrence. A lot of physical damage is done in breast cancer surgeries and I think most women never feel totally the same as before having cancer surgery.

Hi Bianca. You're welcome for the response. I've had radiation 5 times now. I've had it anywhere from 1-4 weeks in duration. I had a double mastectomy the 1st time and a lumpectomy and 2 lymph nodes removed from my chest the 2nd time along with 16 lymph nodes removed from my armpit.

What a lot of patients aren't told and as a result don't know is that after you finish active radiation sessions the radiation is still actively working to kill cancer cells. I'm not sure how long this phase lasts, but it does exist. Since you only had 1 week of radiation and are now only 2 weeks post radiation you might still develop some side effects like nausea, tiredness, and burns to the skin where the radiation beam was aimed.

For me when I've had 1 week of radiation the only real side effect I get during that 1st week is a gross metallic taste in my mouth. Usually during the 1-3 weeks after radiation is done I will start to get nausea, get real tired and need naps, and my skin will get redder for a couple weeks and sometimes will get blistered about 3-4 weeks post radiation. I've found when I have the 1 week of radiation that it takes me about 2 months to start feeling normal again. During the 2nd month I start to get some energy back and I don't need to nap as often. The nausea starts to ease up for me towards the end of the 2nd month.

I find it's best to listen to your body. If you're tired then sleep more. If you're nauseous then take nausea pills, but take them on a regular schedule cause if you wait to take a pill until you're nauseous it's much harder to knock back the nausea. Ondansetron works best for me. I take 3 pills a day during the 1st month and towards the end of the 2nd month I cut back to 2 pills a day. Normally during the 3rd month I get down to 1 pill and then down to only the occasional pill. It helps to eat snacks instead of full meals. Saltines are good to settle your stomach, especially if you are experiencing nausea on an empty stomach.

As far as scar tissue massage goes you may want to hold off for a few weeks until you see how your skin is going to react from potential radiation burns. You don't want to be rubbing skin that's been burned and making it more aggravated. Be sure you keep applying lotion to the area at least a couple times a day until you're skin has healed completely. It's a good idea to still use lotion daily once you're skin has healed cause radiation sometimes will make your skin thicker and leathery feeling and the lotion helps to soften it up.

I always have an appointment on my last day of radiation with my radiation oncologist and then my next follow up appointment is scheduled 3 months later. If you have any questions or concerns about any side effects from the radiation then contact your radiation oncologists office. That lump you're feeling could be aggravated scar tissue that swelled from the radiation or could be an actual lump so I would definitely get that checked in person to be safe.

Hi Bianca....I find it odd and surprising that your radiation oncology office doesn't expect their patients to have radiation related nausea and fatigue. You had 5 big doses of radiation in a week instead of multiple weeks of a lower dose of radiation. When I've had that done the nausea and fatigue come on strong in weeks 2-3. Do you have a prescription for nausea meds? If not ask them to give you one or you can also ask your primary care physician. My primary care physician handles all my prescriptions with the exception of my AI and CDK inhibitors which are prescribed by my oncologist.

I live in Florida so I get what you mean about the warmer weather. When you're already feeling yucky and gross the heat just adds another layer of yuck to how you're feeling. I have a little rechargeable battery operated fan I got on Amazon that I always keep with me. It helps a lot with the hot flashes from my AI med and when I overheat from the nausea or the weather.

It's tough waiting to figure out what you're new normal will be. I've found with both surgeries and chemo it takes about a year to reach my new normal. When I've had surgeries, chemo, and radiation as my treatment plan it's been a 2 year process. The first year is full of various treatments and the second year is about recovering from everything your body and mind has been through. Having been through so many things with cancer I've had a lot of new normals. Each new normal leaves me at a lower level than I was before the latest recurrence and round of treatments. For me it helps to be as active as I can be after any sort of treatment. I know if I don't get up and move around on a regular basis and do some house or yard work and get out to walk me and my service dog I won't come back to the highlest level I can reach in my most recent recovery. That being said, you also have to pace yourself and give yourself grace when you're in the worst parts of active treatment as well. With patience and time you will get there ❤️

I have both breast and endometrial cancers. The first time my endometrial cancer came back it reappeared as a small egg shaped solid tumor that was directly under the scars from my DIEP surgery and hysterectomy. I was given the AI Letrozole for a couple of months to see if it would shrink. It didn't and it kept growing. At that point I demanded chemo or radiation to kill it. They made me do chemo first. Had 7 rounds and the tumor kept growing, but the pace of growth slowed down a little bit. This cancer did not want to die. Finally I had radiation. I went through 20 sessions and the tumor died. Unfortunately it did not shrink any.

The original thought of my former OBG oncologist was the tumor would shrink or go away and if there was any tumor left after it was dead it could be surgically removed. The tumor was located in the lower abdominal muscle tissue and under that muscle is where the large intestine is located. The tumor had grown enough when I was taking AI and having chemo that it had grown through the muscle and into the interstitial space between the muscle and large intestine which made it inoperable. Now I'm stuck with this hard, dead, egg shaped tumor that gets sore and irritated when I have an active day with lots of walking or moving around.

According to my radiation oncologist it's dead so it won't grow any more or kill me, but it's been a pain in the butt to have it in my body causing aggravation. It's also frustrating because it was small enough to remove when I found it. So yes, in my case I have a hard mass/tumor under my surgical scar tissue. Your hard lump could be any number of things so it would be a good idea to have your oncologist check it out to be in the safe side. Good luck, hopefully it's nothing more than a harmless lump.