Hoping Maybe Someone Has An Answer

wolfen

Hello Everyone,

For those of you that had a met or another primary in the lung, could you tell me if your chest hurt in that area?

Hubby has had a pain in his chest sort of between the breastbone and left lung for a couple of days now. He sent a reading to the cardio on his Carelink Monitor and although he is in A-fib and fluid levels are still high, nothing else unusual is going on with the heart.

I really can't find anywhere that chest pain is a problem, mostly just shortness of breath, which he does not currently have. There's not much info on the Lung Board. And even though my daughter has 38 lung mets, she tells me they are not painful.

We do have the lung rad mapping tomorrow and I hope he'll mention this to the radiologist. He's stubborn that way and doesn't like to mention his pains.

Thanks All,

Luv,

Wolfen

phrannie51

I can't remember where the

cancer is in his throat....Back in October of 2011, I had pain just left of my breast bone....not horrible pain or anything, just kind of an ache that would come and go during the day.  I thought maybe it was a heart problem at the time.  I was diagnosed with NPC....which can have "referred pain" to just left of the breast bone.  If it hadn't been for my lymph node swelling up,  I'd probably have ended up in a cardio's office. 

I don't know anything about mets to the lungs....I've always thought shortness of breath, coughing blood etc....would be the symptoms of lung cancer....

p

wolfen

phrannie51 said:

I can't remember where the

cancer is in his throat....Back in October of 2011, I had pain just left of my breast bone....not horrible pain or anything, just kind of an ache that would come and go during the day.  I thought maybe it was a heart problem at the time.  I was diagnosed with NPC....which can have "referred pain" to just left of the breast bone.  If it hadn't been for my lymph node swelling up,  I'd probably have ended up in a cardio's office. 

I don't know anything about mets to the lungs....I've always thought shortness of breath, coughing blood etc....would be the symptoms of lung cancer....

p

Hi, Phrannie

Thanks for your input. The Squamous Cell is BOT right side with right neck lymph node involvement. The other cancer is Adenocarcinoma in the left lung.

Please, what is NPC? This crazy pain actually started about 5 days ago in the left shoulder, which is better now. Now seems to be concentrated between breastbone and left lung. Could be he's just laid on it wrong. Have actually tried Ben-Gay, but he says pain is getting worse. So, I gave him an Aleve.

Luv,

Wolfen

phrannie51

wolfen said:

Hi, Phrannie

Thanks for your input. The Squamous Cell is BOT right side with right neck lymph node involvement. The other cancer is Adenocarcinoma in the left lung.

Please, what is NPC? This crazy pain actually started about 5 days ago in the left shoulder, which is better now. Now seems to be concentrated between breastbone and left lung. Could be he's just laid on it wrong. Have actually tried Ben-Gay, but he says pain is getting worse. So, I gave him an Aleve.

Luv,

Wolfen

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma...

that part of the throat that hooks behind your nose to your throat. 

I did some looking tho, and found this:

Pain or Aching in Your Shoulder, Back, Chest, or Arm

Lung cancers may press on nerves, resulting in pain in your shoulder, chest, back, or an arm -- even before they cause a cough or difficulty breathing. If you notice pain in one of these areas of the body that doesn’t seem to be related to an injury (or even if it is but persists), consult your physician. Up to 50% of people with lung cancer have some chest or shoulder pain at the time of diagnosis, especially pain that increases with coughing and breathing.

So what he's feeling could be caused by the tumor in his lung.

p

wolfen

phrannie51 said:

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma...

that part of the throat that hooks behind your nose to your throat. 

I did some looking tho, and found this:

Pain or Aching in Your Shoulder, Back, Chest, or Arm

Lung cancers may press on nerves, resulting in pain in your shoulder, chest, back, or an arm -- even before they cause a cough or difficulty breathing. If you notice pain in one of these areas of the body that doesn’t seem to be related to an injury (or even if it is but persists), consult your physician. Up to 50% of people with lung cancer have some chest or shoulder pain at the time of diagnosis, especially pain that increases with coughing and breathing.

So what he's feeling could be caused by the tumor in his lung.

p

Thanks, Phrannie

Thanks for finding this for me. I'll read it to him.

Luv Ya,

Wolfen

Ladylacy

Pain in shoulder

My husband has had a terrible pain in his right shoulder since December.  Doctors don't know why except they had to pull his chest muscle up to reconstruct his throat when he was undergoing a complete laryngectomy.  Now this was done in March 2011 and he never had any problems under December 2012.  The pain started after he underwent another 35 radiation treatments which were completed in July 2012.   He underwent a needle biopsy on Monday due to a spot in his right lung that has been slowly growing over the last 3 Pet/CT scans.  So we asked about the pain being connected but of course, they said no.  Who knows but his pain is worse at night when he lays down and sometimes goes across his right chest to the left.  His heart is okay.

Still waiting for the results.

Sharon

wolfen

Ladylacy said:

Pain in shoulder

My husband has had a terrible pain in his right shoulder since December.  Doctors don't know why except they had to pull his chest muscle up to reconstruct his throat when he was undergoing a complete laryngectomy.  Now this was done in March 2011 and he never had any problems under December 2012.  The pain started after he underwent another 35 radiation treatments which were completed in July 2012.   He underwent a needle biopsy on Monday due to a spot in his right lung that has been slowly growing over the last 3 Pet/CT scans.  So we asked about the pain being connected but of course, they said no.  Who knows but his pain is worse at night when he lays down and sometimes goes across his right chest to the left.  His heart is okay.

Still waiting for the results.

Sharon

Hi Sharon

Don't you just love it when you ask the doc about a symptom or a side effect and their response is "I never heard of that before". My daughter got that line several times with her first chemo doc(a real airhead, IMO).

Sure hope all turns out well for your hubby and if the spot is a bad one, it can be eradicated.

I remembered another friend on the Colon Board who has had many lung tumors, resections, and even the Da Vinci surgery, and I asked him this question late last night. He said "Yes". That at least one tumor was very large and dangerously close to the spine, and caused him very bad pain. So this goes right along with what Phrannie wrote.

Take Care,

Luv,

Wolfen

ToBeGolden

Pain ... Then Level-9 Pain

I have laryngeal mets to the lung (and some bone). I had low level back pain (Level-4) for a couple of months. Then it suddenly shot up to Level-9, all encompassing pain. There was nothing in my consciousness except for the pain. I had some oxy--- left over from the throat surgeries, which saved my life.

Quite quickly, the pain was found to be cause by a tumor erroading spinal bones? I had 5 days of urgent radiation to shrink the tumor, which brought the pain level back down to Level-4. The pain meds can drop it anther 2 or 3 points.

In my case, and in your husbands case, this is/will not be a matter of speculation. A CT-Scan identified the problem in my case. So maybe, your husband will have a Dx by the time you read this. Pain needs to be reported and not merely endured.

The 5 days of radiation really helped. Rick.

wolfen

ToBeGolden said:

Pain ... Then Level-9 Pain

I have laryngeal mets to the lung (and some bone). I had low level back pain (Level-4) for a couple of months. Then it suddenly shot up to Level-9, all encompassing pain. There was nothing in my consciousness except for the pain. I had some oxy--- left over from the throat surgeries, which saved my life.

Quite quickly, the pain was found to be cause by a tumor erroading spinal bones? I had 5 days of urgent radiation to shrink the tumor, which brought the pain level back down to Level-4. The pain meds can drop it anther 2 or 3 points.

In my case, and in your husbands case, this is/will not be a matter of speculation. A CT-Scan identified the problem in my case. So maybe, your husband will have a Dx by the time you read this. Pain needs to be reported and not merely endured.

The 5 days of radiation really helped. Rick.

Thanks, Rick

And so sorry you had to experience that kind of pain level. We did have the lung radiation mapping this afternoon and he mentioned the pain to the rad nurse, who just kind of blew it off. Of all the staff we've met, I kind of like her the least(can't love em' all, I guess). She has the least compassionate attitude I've experienced yet, or maybe she's just seen too much. Kind of funny, but when she took him to the simulation area, she told me I could wait out in the main waiting area. She said there was a family waiting area nearby, but it would probably be full of a bunch of ladies right now. I almost laughed and said "I may wear boots and jeans, but I'm still a lady". But, I bit my tongue. LOL

Anyhow, hubby said there are actually two tumors overlapping. As far as I know, no bone involvement. I expect rads to start in about two weeks.

Luv,

Wolfen