After DCIS lumpectomy, seroma, and radiation, is it safe to do rehab?

If you are offered rehab services I’d take them up on them. What are they offering? Don’t usually give you anything that’s not going to help…and we all need all the support we can get

I followed through with having rehab services done today. I must say, I do feel better! I was checked out (ultrasound) beforehand to make sure I didn't have any other seroma complications. The therapist did soft tissue breast massage and some exercises that would help me in reducing the scar tissue.

Good news--glad to hear it. I'm about 13 months post lumpectomy and have a great rolpher who continues to work on the scars and mobility--as do I. It is really worth the effort and my arm is in happy shape. I don't think most people need to continue PT that long, but as I'm going anyway for chronic pain conditions I'm glad to focus on lumpectomy area from time to time. Here is to your complete improvement!

Sounds like a positive experience! and good info for follow through. Hope it helps resolve your situation

What grade was your biopsy showing?
How did you do with the radiation?
I'm 75yo and had the lumpectomy and am healing now.
I expect radiation to be recommended but am very hesitant because of the side effects.
Curious on your comments.

I had lumpectomy 4-2023, 15 days radiation, but radiation took me over a month to heal. I still do soft tissue massage on radiated breast- almost daily.

I had lumpectomy June of 2021, opted to forgo radiation because of low ONCO score. Seroma lasted for 18+ months, very slow in subsiding. No pain, just soft tissue. I can still sometimes feel the very last bit of it, but since the seroma to begin with was right on top of an ancient healed cracked rib, I just let it heal without massage, etc.
After close to 3 years after initial diagnosis, lumpectomy, I find now that my lymph node areas (where they would be, the ones that they took out) in my armpit are getting pretty sensitive. Will address this in separate post.

I'm 82 now. I had a lumpectomy, chemo for a year at 79 and radiation for 6 weeks. I had no trouble from the radiation.

chemo for a year???
radiation for 6 weeks?
I'm stage 0 (DCIS) with a very small lumpectomy.
I'm not looking forward to radiation and may skip it.
Side effects sound awful.
You must be a young 82 and I wish you the best.

I'm 78 now, 76 when diagnosed. Had conflicting advice on having radiation. Trinity Hospital in Moline (Illinois) had me set for 33 radiation for my 11 mm tumor, discovered in Dec. 2021. Oncologist said I "didn't need" an oncotype, so I didn't get one to plan any treatment (despite asking more than once). Tumor was 11 mm., I was started on Anastrazole on Feb. 1, at a time when I was fighting the seroma and I took it for 7 months, through 33 bouts of radiation, which Iowa City said they would not have ordered for me, because I was a woman in my 70s. The radiation was not bad, but I should not have been put on A.I. drugs because I had a longstanding history of bad arthritis and an injured left knee joint. I had been selected for the MOST clinical trial in 1997 and was in it until 2020 with frequent routine MRIs of my damaged left knee and X-rays of knees and hips. Therefore, the Anastrozole, which will inflame damaged joints, was pure torture for me. I was frequently up all night rummaging through my bathroom drawers trying to find something to alleviate the worst pain I had ever had in my life. (At one point, I found some Oxycontin left over from a 2020 root canal, but it was contra-indicated because I took Lorazepam to sleep.) I did not sleep and had dry eyes to the point of blurry vision, dry skin, teariness, brain fog, mood swings and then, on 9/15/2022, my left knee blew out. I had to have shots in my left knee: 32 ml of an anti-inflammatory and 6 ml of Durolane with Tramadol for pain. Spent 6 months in a wheelchair, hoping it was a meniscus tear. Still, to this day, cannot walk long distances without bracing my left knee and could not walk without a cane for haI a year. I do not regret missing out on chemo, but, when I finally and belatedly got an oncotype from my Texas oncologist (after a very bad result from a HerScan ultrasound on the 1 year anniversary of my surgery), it was 29. The % of a recurrence if I don't take Tamoxifen for 5 years is 36% and 18% if I do take Tamoxifen for 5 years. I tried Tamoxifen for 5 months. I went through with the radiation because of my reading about the side effects of A.I. pills and Tamoxifen. On Tamoxifen I was so fatigued that I could only stay up for 3 hours at a time, plus I had non-stop UTIs and a constant urgency to urinate. The best I have felt has been when I quit taking the adjuvant therapy drugs. I am concerned about the fact that my oncologist didn't even see me except 2x in 8 months and never bothered to level with me about the side effects of Anastrozole on my body. I feel that his P.A.'s purposely gave me the run-around and I have now heard stories about this same physician refusing to order tests for patients, for fear he will get "dinged by Medicare." I am now trying for Eternal Vigilance and have lost a lot of confidence in the medical establishment.