Drinking cold things feels weird after mastectomy

What a relief to read that other people experience this, too. I had a double mastectomy on 10/07/19 and have been having the same sensations. So bizarre! Feels like my insides are on the outside. Glad to know I am not alone.

Thank you for this thread! I found it before my surgery and it helped me so much to know, when I first experienced this weird feeling, that it was completely normal. I mentioned it to one of the PS and he had never heard of it. I wish I had been prepared for all of the other weird sensations which keep cropping up! Anyway, it's good to know that they should get better.

Hi,

I recently had my Mastectomy on 3/21/24 and had my 2nd drainage tube removed today. I am experiencing the cold feeling when I drink. I was afraid to mention it, so I spoke to my daughter about it today and here iam. She found this thread and im so glad I'm not the only one. I thought if I mention it, others will think I lost it. Thanx for sharing.

I am 5 weeks post op exchange surgery. I always have, and still do, feel cool or cold water flood my chest nerves when I drink. I loved it right after mastectomy, it was like an internal ice bag sensation. And it's ok now, too, as I still have some sore times per day. Feels good after doing the gentle implant massage sessions, too. Hot tea

doesn't seem to bother as much. Impatient for April to arrive, as that is the earliest my surgeon wants to see me again, to discuss revision surgery / fat grafting. Everything is Wait and See. Some drop and fluff has occurred,

also eager for more of that.

I remember back in 2008 when I was recovering from my left mastectomy (no recon) that drinking something icy-cold gave me a cold flush in (on?) my chest. The sensation eventually went away. Now, after a mastectomy on the right side, I'm not having that same cold flush. I didn't investigate, but I do have a theory.

We have special, cold-sensitive nerve endings — cold thermoreceptors — at fairly high density in our skin. Normally (pre-mastectomy), that skin is separated from the esophagus by lung, sternum, muscle, (I've forgotten so much of what I learned in Anatomy) etc., including a thick layer of fatty breast tissue. My theory is that the breast tissue acts as an insulator, shielding the skin from the flush of cold as an icy beverage flows down your esophagus.

Of course that shielding is gone after a mastectomy, leaving the skin in direct contact with the chest muscle, ribcage, etc. — not very far from the esophagus. Drink something cold, and the shock of the cold is quickly conducted to those thermoreceptors in the skin.

Does that sound plausible?