Surgery after radiation

DianeCB

I finished my radiation treatments about five years ago and have been dealing with the side effects just fine; however, a months ago the lump in my neck began growing back.  Because of where the lump is, it is causing me alot of pain.  I will be going in soon for a biopsy of the lump to ensure it is benign, but my doctor is also talking about surgery to remove the lump as an option afterward.  I was told that the surgery is dangerous due to the amount of radiation I had taken, but dealing with the pain is getting more and more difficult.  Has anyone else had to deal with surgery after their treatments?  I'm worried and need a little advice.

CivilMatt

darn neck lump

DianeCB,

Welcome to the H&N forum, where neck lumps are all too common.

If you are not going through rads again and you are not going to have surgery to remove it, then you will just have to wait for the meds and your own immune system to get rid of it.  That is providing it is benign (which I hope it is).

My lump was not painful, but it took a jugular vein dissection to remove it (that was 5  years ago next month).

Don’t mess around with a lump, proceed like you are and get better soon.

Matt

stevenpepe

I just had surgery on the

I just had surgery on the right side of my neck that was just radiated 3 months ago. I'm also having additional rads to that same side. So, rads, then surgery, then rads again.

So far, no complications. Who knows what the future will bring. When it comes to cancer, the goal is to eradicate it, then deal with side effects later. Scary, but that's the situation we're in. I wish you all the best.