Breast Radiation: I feel very tight in rib area, anyone else?

A couple of things to the whole post.
Yes, radiation hurt my ribs and my lungs. I had whole breast radiation for 24 treatments. My right lung is scarred, two months after treatment, I contracted pneumonia, right lung collapse, intubated for 8 days and hospitalized for 14. I know everyone is different - but it was too much for me and in retrospect ill prescribed. (I'm somewhat tainted in my views now - sometimes believing it's more about the money and not about medicine, sadly.)

I was on Letrozole for approximately 7 months. Over the first several weeks, joint and muscle pain increased and eventually became crippling. My Oncologist prescribed Cymbalta for pain for a couple months, but it had little effect. I was weened off cymbalta and left with no other option than to stop taking the Letrozole. I'm about 9 weeks free of Letrozole and about 60% better on the joint and muscle pain but have severe neuropathy in my right hand and moderate in my left. Two fingers have "trigger" finger which may never resolve without surgery.

I retrospect, I would have fought much harder against the radiation - My "numbers" were so close to having a very short treatment of 3-5 days vs the full boat. I also would have researched (and most likely refused) Letrozole - the side effects were so severe.

I'm in a watchful waiting mode with the onco dr. and prayerful to not have recurrent cancer.

I am 2 years past my radiation and I still get PT for my pectorial. Radiation changed the elasticity of the muscle. They said it's just part of radiation. It is a total drag and it always feels tight. I had a recurrence in my lymphnodes and had an axillary disection so I have a lot of numbing as well. The tightness is always there and sometimes pulls of the scar which feels like burning or an abrasion that you get on your palms. I do streches all the time and I have had improvement through the last two years. I know this doesn't sound positive and somedays I feel absolutely deflated from it but I am grateful that I am alive still. I just have to work extra hard.

Thanks for your reply Miriam, yes I have seen and still see a physio. Unfortunately it doesn’t help much and it is very painful after stretching all the tight skin and muscles and tissues. I am still waiting to have a MRI to find out what is really going on in / on my chest wall and in my axilla.

Thanks for your response 🙏 . I also have nerve damage, Ulna Nerve, causing numbness and loss of sensation in my hand , little and ring fingers.
I find it all very disappointing as I was told by radio onc. it is very precise and will only focus on the cancer in my skin and would not affect my lung. Also some of my nails,3, became “dead” flaking, buckling and breaking. They are now, nearly a year later almost back to normal.
I am very concerned about starting on AI as the side effects seem so bad. I think I am leaning towards Tamoxifen as they say it doesn’t affect osteoporosis??? So difficult to make these decisions. I also have a husband with dementia who is worse than no help😱. Sorry about the complaints, I am having a bad day! Wishing you all the best🙏🙏

I was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer after Larposcopy in april gone, it left my wife of 20 years extremely distressed, contemplating suicide if i die, 4 surgeons who preformed Larposcopy informed me two hours after op that I've stage 4, im infested with cancer, they did deep deep biopsies of organs, 3 weeks later at first meeting they miraculously said they can prolong my life to 5 years, we were delighted overjoyed tearful, 2 months of FLOT chemo then stomach removed and whatever else in August, released on 6th september, in an awful state, wife whose 45 years had a letter from her own doctor to attend A+E for a simple Xray, which showed spots on her lung, they kept her in hospital for tests and within one week of the day of my release from hospital, she was diagnosed with stage 4 aggressive kidney lung and brain cancer, she recieved two session of immunotherapy and in november her first dose of radiation to supposedly remove the small tumours from her brain, she was ok for a few hours after but then experienced severe headaches which they said was normal, one week after radiation she collapsed out of our bed at 9.30am, she had a brain bleed under the small tumour that semi paralysed her, unable to speak, they operated took tumours from her brain, she fought hard for 5 weeks and died in my arms just over a week befor Christmas in hospital under Palliative care, i believe radiation fries the brain, and they should operated to remove her small tumours as they stated they would do initially, thats just my story i like to share in relation to radiation, her second month anniversary is near, get a second opinion before radiation

Hi feprincess, you describe my symptoms from the radiation fibrosis really well, stretching, tightness, burning and pulling in the scar tissue. Unfortunately for me , physio doesn’t help and it makes me feel worse with the pain from the movement 😱. All the same , I do as much as I can to stop the arm and chest wall seize up all together. I wish you all the best. It is sometimes hard to keep the good spirits up!🙏🙏🙏

It started 9 months after the radiation and now it is nearly a year ago and getting worse!😱

Thx for the reply! I am praying that doesn’t happen to me. I am almost 3 months after radiation, and hopefully getting better, only some stabbing pains once in a while,e and sometimes near rib🙄
I hope you get some relief. Soon. So sorry you are having these terrible issues. Ad enough we have to deal with the disease. 🙏