Cords, Gold Medals & The Breathing Olympics Continue

Cords, Gold Medals & The Breathing Olympics Continue

🌼 Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2026

⚡ Energy: Gold medal contender

💓 Status: Wi-Fi restored, cords discovered

😑 Outlook: Slightly annoyed, but still showing up

At radiation today the Wi-Fi was back up and running, and so was my VCD!

Victory!

That meant I was able to make it through all four of my daily zappings on the first try. No do-overs today. Which also means I am absolutely crushing it at my Breathing Olympics.

I’m pretty sure my gold medal is currently being forged somewhere as we speak.

On a not-so-fun note, while I was slathering myself with my second coat of lotion today, I noticed something new.

Underneath my left arm, I can actually see the cording.

Not good news.

Time for a quick Medical Terminology Moment.

Cording, also known as Axillary Web Syndrome (AWS), is a common side effect after mastectomy or lymph node removal. It appears as tight, rope-like cords under the skin that can run from the armpit down the arm. It can cause pain, stiffness, and limit shoulder movement.

Symptoms include:

• visible or palpable cords under the skin
• sharp pain in the underarm when reaching
• shoulder stiffness
• tightness that limits movement

The cause is believed to be hardening of connective tissues and lymphatic vessels due to trauma from surgery.

Treatment usually involves:

• specialized physical therapy
• manual stretching to break up scar tissue
• specific exercises to restore shoulder movement
• gentle massage or manual lymphatic drainage
• sometimes pain medication to manage discomfort

Thanks, Google.

So what I’m hearing is this means I will most likely have to go back to physical therapy, where they will give me another list of exercises that I will probably manage to do wrong, and I will once again get to experience the special joy known as deep tissue massage.

Lucky me.

The cording has already started limiting what I can do. I can no longer straighten my arm all the way, and reaching up into the cupboard for a glass is now out of the question.

In order to even take the picture of the cording, I had to hold my phone down near my waist and aim it upward toward my armpit, because that is about as high as I can lift my arm right now.

Which makes putting my arms above my head for radiation treatment every day…

so much more enjoyable.

Not.

But hey — at least today I didn’t have to redo any of my zappings.

Small victories.

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💗 Tina –
One Badass Day at a Time