Hello all, sorry I haven't been around much lately.

I am now almost two months out from my last radiation treatment/chemo treatment. My neck on the opposite side of where the original tumor was has been feeling pretty tender ever since I stopped radiation. That area did appear to get radiation, so I'm wondering if this is just after effects or something I need to be concerned about.

My chemo doc said a month ago or so that he thought pain from metastic cancer to the neck was rare. But this tender feeling is what tipped me off that something might be wrong before. I can't really feel a lump or anything, but it does feel swollen in the that whole area (maybe from lymphedema?). I remember feeling this pain somewhat even when I began this second round of radiation in July-August. My doctor has never felt anything, and an MRI taken in mid-September didn't show anything suspicious anywhere in my head or neck.

I guess this just alarms me because I've been down this road before. I don't know if I have the strength and energy to go a third round with this stupid disease, especially since I feel like my wife and I have started a "new life" together since moving back to North Carolina... Anyone else have a tender neck like this and it turn out to be something/nothing? Could it be scarring from radiation? Pardon me for being in a little panic mode...

Eric

Eric,

I hope everything out east is going as well as you expected!

I have a spot on each side that gets a little tender but has been that way for about a year. I even had some lumps in there a few weeks ago but nothing showed up on scans and the doctor felt it could just be a bit of swelling from me fighting off a virus my son had/has. I take Bextra for some arthritis stuff and I noticed when I take it, the neck thing also stops hurting which leads me to believe it is just muscle tissue issues from radiation.

Ed

Eric, are you still hauling around a camera bag? or say a laptop case or a back pack using one strap. Next question, do you sling it over the shoulder on the side that's currenty having the neck pain?

I used to haul my laptop PC back and forth from work using a computer case backpack, and would sling it over my shoulder with one strap as one does, and wonder why that side of my neck felt exactly like the other side that had the tumors did pain wise. Then I switched to rolling wheel case and within a week the pain went away. Went back to the back pack, and the pain started up again.

Didn't take much time each day for it to start, just the time from my apartment down to the car park and various running around.

Just a thought from my experience anyway.

Bob

Bob,

I had the same experience as you -- neck pain that I couldn't explain, and my oncologist ran tests that showed nothing other than some neck arthritis. Around the same time I realized I had been carrying my computer bag (very heavy) on that shoulder, and within a couple of weeks after I stopped, the pain went away.

Cathy

Eric,
Definately monitor the area. I had a sore area near my tomgue, back by the molars that the radiation oncologist couldn't see/said was nothing. My surgeon finally biopsied the area last week. I go in for surgery again, today.

Probably not the same as the neck pain, but I believe that we know our body best, expecially after two bouts. By the way it was an area that was radiated. You can't give this disease a breather! Good luck!

For what it's worth I do carry around heavy computer bags and the like... maybe that is part of it... I don't really feel lumps in the area (and I wonder if I irritate it more by trying to feel something) but I do think I will get an ENT or someone to look at it ASAP for my peace of mind...

Eric

Radiation does a lot of damage to healthy tissue. Personally I stiil cannot swallow liquids or anything that is not smooth and viscous due to aspiration.
But "Time heals all wounds", and someday we will all be eating and drinking anything we want, within reason. As long as I am cancer free, I can stand on my head and eat or drink if necessary.
Darrell

hi Eric,

i can't add anything to the neck pain discussion.

i'm a wolfpacker and my wife is a tarheeel,
so we wonder where you have settled in God's country.

cu,
larry b

larry- funny you should ask... I grew up a Wolfpacker, went to school in Tar Heel country and now am working for a newspaper that covers NC State called The Wolfpacker... I'm a very confused boy in a lot of ways...

I have a PET scan Friday and a follow-up with an ENT on Monday... We should know more within the next week... Of course, sweating bullets again...

Eric

Eric,

I have neck pain all the time. Dont forget there was a whole lot going on in there. Muscle spasm's are the root cause of mine. I get them at night while I am sleeping and it hurts the whole next day. Keep an eye on it. Good luck.
-rh

Hey Eric,
The North Carolina State Cheer team is pretty famous to the kids in our area. Their former coach, Cathy Buckey, was also the former owner of Champion Cheer Gym in Raleigh and was a friend of mine in years past. She used to come to my gyms and watch my teams, critique for me. I have former cheerleaders at the school this year, cheering on the team. Lovely blonde lady named Jamie Howell. We also have a football player heading that way next season, full ride, from my daughters high school. You're in an awesome area, hope you enjoy it.
Minnie

Thanks minnie -- it's actually home for me as I grew up here... a lot has changed, though in the four years I lived in Arizona, like housing prices going sky-high...