A woman said she felt 'like someone was holding a torch to her skin' after getting both of her breasts removed
- Jessica Zabel had both of her breasts removed in 2014 after a cancer scare.
- She had hoped the surgery would make her life easier, but it caused constant, burning pain under her armpit, she told Today.
Jessica Zabel was around 29 years old when she first noticed a lump in her breast.
The mom of two told Today that she found the lump while adjusting her tank top and was soon diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor, but the threat that the cancer could come back troubled her in the years that followed, she said.
In 2014 — two years after her initial cancer diagnosis — she opted to have a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy, a preventive procedure where both breasts are removed.
She told Today that she recalled thinking, "Let's just not ever have to worry about this again." She added that her kids were a huge factor in her decision to get the preventive surgery, as she didn't want her cancer risk "hanging over her head" as she raised her boys.
But the procedure would cause a new set of problems, leading to more than four years of debilitating pain that kept her from working and attending parent-teacher conferences.
Zabel, now 39, said she tried various pain medications, nerve blockers, and additional surgeries to alleviate the constant burning sensation she felt after the mastectomy. She finally found some relief in 2018, when she got the first of several nerve-freezing procedures that brought her pain down to a tolerable level.
At least 1 in 5 mastectomy patients experience persistent pain
More than 100,000 women in the US undergo some form of mastectomy each year to treat or prevent breast cancer, according to Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Between 20% and 30% of those women go on to develop post-mastectomy pain syndrome (PMPS) — a form of persistent nerve pain along the chest wall, armpit, or arm — according to estimates from the American Cancer Society.
Other estimates, including a study published in the World Journal of Plastic Surgery in 2020, place that number as high as 60% of patients who undergo mastectomies or other surgeries to treat or prevent breast cancer.
Despite the name of the syndrome, people who opt for breast-conserving surgery, such as lumpectomies, can also experience chronic pain after surgery.
Zabel told Today that she was prepared for some pain after her surgery to remove both breasts. However, she was hit hard with a constant and intense burning sensation under her armpit that did not improve over time.
"I just felt like I was on fire, like someone was holding a torch to my skin," she told the outlet.
She didn't like how she felt on pain meds, so she tried a new surgical approach
Zabel said she was prescribed opioids to treat her constant pain after surgery, but she didn't like how she felt "altered" on the drugs.
She said she also tried physical therapy, nerve block injections, and lidocaine patches, but nothing eased her pain to a tolerable level. The constant burning sensation was disrupting her life, and she was almost out of hope when she came across a promising clinical trial.
The trial, led by Dr. J. David Prologo at Emory University, used a tried-and-true technique for treating nerve pain in a new patient population: women with PMPS. Prolongo and colleagues targeted a nerve in the armpit with cryoablation, a minimally invasive procedure that selectively freezes affected nerves.
By delivering extreme cold to nerves damaged in breast tissue removal surgery, the procedure interrupts the pain signal sent from those nerves to the brain. In the long term, those frozen nerves can regenerate as "brand new," allowing patients to regain sensation without the pain, Prolongo explained to Today.
Zabel has had four cryoablation procedures since 2018, as multiple nerves were damaged and causing her pain. She said the effects were gradual, but eventually made a "night and day" difference that has allowed her to return to her normal routine.