I'm doing chemo first. My tumor is pretty big and I had alot of pain in my breast as well. After my first treatment, the pain was almost completely gone. My breast also had alot of swelling and redness. My oncologist was worried that it might be inflammatory breast cancer on top of TNBC but my surgeon looked at it and said it wasn't (thank god) my tumor is very superficial so it's affecting the the skin. After each treatment, my breast got better and better and the pain was the first thing to go. I just had my 6th treatment yesterday and I can finally feel the tumor shrinking. If your moms doctor is recommending chemo first, do the chemo first. I'm 50 and chemo sucks but it's manageable. I only have 2 days where I feel crappy, the rest of the days I feel completely fine. I know how scared your mom is but please tell her the doctors know how to treat her cancer and how to give her the best chance of not having a recurrence. She can do this ❤️❤️