Numbness

denistd
denistd Member Posts: 597
in Head and Neck Cancer #1

23 years ago I had a neuroma taken out of my right foot. In December I had a carotid endarterectomy, dodgy surgery, big cut and deep inside the neck, left me with a 5 inch long scar goinng from below my left earlobe down to underneath my adams apple. After I had chemo and rads in 2009, i could feel a little numbness in my foot and in my neck but nothing too noticeable about it and mostly ignored it, last year the numbness in my foot started to increase it got worse and worse, now the toes and halfway up the foot are completely numb, big toe is fine. A few weeks ago I started to notice the same thing in my neck on the scar side really beginning to numb up, now it's getting bothersome, the numbness is mostly under my chin through the scar and down to my adams apple. Asked a doctor about and was told the nerves have all been cut in the surgeries and numbness was a part of this, and now hw says the chemo is making it worse but thinks at won't get much better. In time I am sure I won't be aware of it as I am now. Has this happenned to thos of you that had neck surgery befor chemo and rads?

Comments

  • denistd
    denistd Member Posts: 597
    #2
    numb

    Should have read December of 2008

  • fishmanpa
    fishmanpa Member Posts: 1,227 Member
    #3
    Progressively numb?

    Denis, 

    Are you saying you had feelings in your foot and neck initially and after the treatments they progressively got worse? 

    I'm only a few months out of surgery. I have numbness from my head above the ear down to the scar and halfway to the lateral line of my chin. A little bit has come back but the majority of the area is totally numb. Sheesh! I can't imagine it getting worse. It may be years before I know what he end result is. 

    "T"

     

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #4
    I'm wondering if

    all this has more than one cause.  Like the numbness in your neck is from the surgery....and the numbness in your foot is from the other surgery with chemo thrown on top of it.  I had a case of neuropathy in my foot (like you, just the toes, and the top 1/2 of my foot) from back surgery.  The chemo now has that whole foot numb, plus tingles in the other foot....and both hands pretty tingley.

    p

  • HobbsDoggy
    HobbsDoggy Member Posts: 276
    #5
    Neck

    I had the same type of neck surgery.  For the first, I would guess, 4 months the area was very numb and temder at the same time.  I could touch it and it hurt in a strange way.  Still the numb feeling was there most of the time.  It is slowly getting better, at 6 months out I would say its 50% better and I don't have a numb feeling most of the time that is noticable.  If I think about it or touch the area it still has that strange feeling.

  • denistd
    denistd Member Posts: 597
    #6
    phrannie51 said:

    I'm wondering if

    all this has more than one cause.  Like the numbness in your neck is from the surgery....and the numbness in your foot is from the other surgery with chemo thrown on top of it.  I had a case of neuropathy in my foot (like you, just the toes, and the top 1/2 of my foot) from back surgery.  The chemo now has that whole foot numb, plus tingles in the other foot....and both hands pretty tingley.

    p

    NUmb

    Hi Tim and Phrannie, yes I did have numbness after my surgeries, but very little until after my go round with Jack (That'e for you Tim). I too thought I had neuropathy and I do, in my hands but I have had surgery on both hands and have large scars on them too. The numbness has gotten worse by a bunch, but remember I am almost 70 and have learned to live with these things. The neck has no neuropathy involved it's the nerve damage being ramped up by the chemo and to some extent the rads. I also have a little bit of turkey neck and it feels odd having that numb too when I touch it. Resisting the urge to put my fiongers on it is a must. Go to my ENT in three weeks and he can check it out. Hand surgery on my right hand was for trigger ginger and the left I cut the tendon with accidently when I fell on a small knife (open pocket knife) Good job this all happened recently as I made my living with my hands and voice, so everything is now shot and would not be musoing it around at seventy anyway. Keep that guitar tuned up up Tim, your instrument is like your girlfriend, is owed a lot of respect. Denis

  • hwt
    hwt Member Posts: 2,328 Member
    #7
    HobbsDoggy said:

    Neck

    I had the same type of neck surgery.  For the first, I would guess, 4 months the area was very numb and temder at the same time.  I could touch it and it hurt in a strange way.  Still the numb feeling was there most of the time.  It is slowly getting better, at 6 months out I would say its 50% better and I don't have a numb feeling most of the time that is noticable.  If I think about it or touch the area it still has that strange feeling.

    Not so much numbness

    A year post tx, I have been waking occasionally with a huge cramp in my right foot but then I also had my fibula removed from that leg to replace my jaw.  It is strange to hear your symptoms post tx are starting that far out. This really gets old, doesn't it? But, it beats the alternative. Wondering if the numbness in foot affects your ability to walk? Hope not! 

  • denistd
    denistd Member Posts: 597
    #8
    hwt said:

    Not so much numbness

    A year post tx, I have been waking occasionally with a huge cramp in my right foot but then I also had my fibula removed from that leg to replace my jaw.  It is strange to hear your symptoms post tx are starting that far out. This really gets old, doesn't it? But, it beats the alternative. Wondering if the numbness in foot affects your ability to walk? Hope not! 

    Numb

    No, the numbness in my foot does not affect me in any way except sometimes at night. There is no pain or swelling of my neck, just a real uncomfortable feeling, it's also a little tight feeling, like I said see the ENT in three weeks and will have him examine it. I had an endoscopy last Thursday and the numbness appeared a day after that, my GP thinks they may have hurt something doing the endoscopy, seems unlikely to me. Remember your body will never recover completely, High dose Cisplatin is pur poison to the body and will affect many things and radiation will continue for klife, some folks have to have jaw replacement 20 years after rads, thos beams go right through one of the must susceptible parts of your body, but we adjust. Denis

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