Neck, Trap and Sterno muscle issues 4.5 years after treatment...

I have not had an exactly similar experience but last September I was operated on for a cancerous lymph node that was not encapsulated anymore and had grown into the surrounding tissue. The had to peel it off from around my carotid artery and remove some muscle and tissue it had grown into. Thus I can only lift my rm up about half of what I used to in one direction. Why you have so much damage with just chemo and rads I don't know. But radiation burns so it may have burned that much that it damaged the muscle or may be affected the blood flow to your damaged areas. Good luck with PT and chiropractor and praying your CT scan comes up showing NED and nothing to worry about-Take Care-God Bless-Russ

Radiation is pretty harsh on the body, and I don't doubt that it can have a negative effect on the upper musculoskeletal system.  I think we all have neck stiffness as a result and are reminded often to do daily stretching to stave off muscular fibrosis.  When I turn my head it sounds like roacks grinding in my neck.  I'm sure some of this is from age, but it wasn't this bad pre-radiation.  But I'm not sure about atrophied muscles.  That's usually caued by lack of muscle usage.  Having surgery would certainly cause one to not use certain muscles for an extended period, but lack of physical activity is probably the main contributor.  The older we get the more important it is to keep muscles strong.  One of the nurses that administered my 2nd round of chemo warned me of losing muscle mass beyond the age of 50... that there is a point where it just won't come back.  The SCM muscle is a strange one... kind of hard to imagine how it is useful or if you could even tell that it wasn't functioning properly.

I've been having more nreve issues lately, especially with my left arm falling asleep and have wondered if it could be radiation related.

ERomanO said:

Muscle atrophy

Radiation is pretty harsh on the body, and I don't doubt that it can have a negative effect on the upper musculoskeletal system.  I think we all have neck stiffness as a result and are reminded often to do daily stretching to stave off muscular fibrosis.  When I turn my head it sounds like roacks grinding in my neck.  I'm sure some of this is from age, but it wasn't this bad pre-radiation.  But I'm not sure about atrophied muscles.  That's usually caued by lack of muscle usage.  Having surgery would certainly cause one to not use certain muscles for an extended period, but lack of physical activity is probably the main contributor.  The older we get the more important it is to keep muscles strong.  One of the nurses that administered my 2nd round of chemo warned me of losing muscle mass beyond the age of 50... that there is a point where it just won't come back.  The SCM muscle is a strange one... kind of hard to imagine how it is useful or if you could even tell that it wasn't functioning properly.

I've been having more nreve issues lately, especially with my left arm falling asleep and have wondered if it could be radiation related.

Hi ERomanO - I have had right arm tingling and numbness.  Just had some MRIs and they seem to point to nerve issues in the Brachial Plexus caused by radiation. Google radiation induced plaxopathy.  More troubling than the tingling and numbness is increasing weakness in my right arm.  For now, just thankful that only my right arm is affected and praying it doesn't detoriate further.