odd prickly/slightly stinging sensations in pelvic/abdomen area?

maggie_wilson said:

kathy
thanx for your response. it was helpful. do you think we're the only two out here with these strange sensations?

sisterhood,
maggie

maggie_wilson said:

fayard,
it sounds a little different. mine is more a stinging sensation, and moves around to different areas. it's not particularly sensitive to touch. i did talk to my doctor about it, and she doesn't have any idea what it could be, but doesn't think serious. i'm sure i'll know more once i have my ct/pet scan, yet to be scheduled.

thanks for responding, and hope your pain is nothing. i did have a lot of roving, different kinds of pain after surgery and chemo, and did have a ct/pet which showed nothing.

sisterhood,
maggie

evertheoptimist said:

for me personally, this is
for me personally, this is definitely a sign of cancer. Not saying that's the case for you.

I know the surgery related sensations: they are pinching sensations very close to the skin and the incision area. Always the same place. that's entirely OK in my mind.

However, the sensations from deeper regions of the abdominal and pelvic areas were definitely cancer for me.

I felt them when I was initially diagnosed. Though I did not know what they were initially, I made a connection. After surgery, a lot of it was gone, but a lot still left: makes sense, I was suboptimally debulked, and there were a lot of small nodules left. Within two weeks on chemom, I started to feel these sensations greatly abating. I knew then that the chemo was working.

When I recurred, I started to feel very faint sensations like these building up again, and lo and behold, later scan revealed that indeed the cancer came back. When I read the scan report, I realized that the areas of tumor implant matched precisely areas where I felt the sensation. When I started to feel these, it was only after 2-3 weeks since a perfectly clean test results. So, by now, I am incredibly in tune with my body.

It's been two weeks since I started the treatment for the recurrence, and I already feel that sensations abating. So, I am guessing that the treatment is working.

Going forward, if I go into remission, and if I were to recur in the future again, I will know almost immediately when the recurrence happens way before any tests of scans.

Again, I don't want to freak you out. For you, it may be just remnant of the surgery related issue. For me, I know exactly what this means. To emphasize, for me, the surgery related sharp sensations that come and go that are commonly believed to be related to nerves regenerating are ENTIRELY different and very shallow. Cancer related sensations come from much deeper regions of the abdominal area.

You said you had these sensations before, do you recall when you had them? At the time of DX? After surgery? This will be a clue for you. When did it come back? When did you have your CA125 last time?

I sincerely hope this is nothing for you. But I am sharing my data so that if other women are reading it, it might help them interpret their body's early warning signs......

lkchapman said:

sting sensation
I have them quite frequently, say 4 to 5 times a week. I have stinging, electric shock like pains that move around my abdominal and pelvic area and they sometimes will "refer" to other parts of my body - say to my arm or leg. They are very short and sharp. I don't think they are related to a recurrence as I just had a relatively clean Abd CT, but my CA125 did jump another 5 points(although still in normal range). I will say that I have had them pretty much since I had surgery.
Laura

evertheoptimist said:

one more data point to
one more data point to share:

A friend of mine, who is an OB/GYN told me that sometimes abdominal sensations can be diffused, meaning, they don't always correspond to exact location of tumor implants.

In my case, sharp pains that last about 30 seconds are coming very close to the skin (right below it) and the same location along the incision line. That is definitely related to the surgery. It have gotten almost non-existent (I am 9.5 months out of surgery).

The other sensations are not pain, but weird twinge like sensation. Plus, pulsating sensation when they come from the rectal muscle and vaginal wall muscles. At the time of DX, these pulsating sensations from these two areas were particularly noticeable. With the recurrence, I started to feel them building up. Two weeks into the treatment, they are almost gone - very faint and very infrequent. To me, this was the most obvious tell tale sign. Scan results showed 13 x 8 mm tumor implant on the rectal muscle. Bingo! The abdominal sensations are a bit more diffused, but I can still match them to the scan reports in "general" areas. Plus: they are familiar sensations from those I felt at the time of initial DX and until the front chemo got rid of all the residual nodules.

maggie_wilson said:

carolenk, evertheop , laura, linda & claudia
thank you for your responses, sisters. i wish i knew when i felt these sensations last, but it's only been in the last week that i've felt them again--close to the time i've begun the high dose iv vitamin c regime. have no idea if these are related. this regime is for 6 weeks, so i think i'll follow through with that, then have lab tests, ct/pet, etc.

the prickly twinges don't seem very deep, but it's hard to tell. i wouldn't be surprised if they indicated cancer, but will wait to see. the integrative doctor i see also has some more ideas after the iv c, and my immune system is stronger. both treatments have to do with heat, apparently cancer does not like heat. one is a bio mat that is less intense than cooley's toxins--which give one a fever and flu like symptoms, and apparently has been used with success in the past, and in europe. also heard of some unsuccessful attempts. in any case, i do appreciate all of you taking the time to respond to this vague inquiry.

sisterhood,
maggie

evertheoptimist said:

Have you thought about
Have you thought about getting CA125 unless this is not a reliable marker or whether the integrative treatment you are taking now make the number unreliable.

In my case, it's a very reliable indicator. And, unlike a lot of women for whom the number goes up for a while before anything shows up on the scan, in my case, the number and the actual spots on the scan happen together and FAST. In one month, my number jumped 400% to show tumor implants on the scan, and 10 days later right before I started the treatment the number jumped again almost by 100%

If the treatment is working, it will show on the number first, EXCEPT, I am on doxil plus an experimental drug as part of the trial, and I was warned that CA125 can actually go up during the early phase of Doxil treatment even when the treatment is working (it happens to 50% of the women). So, it may be a while it shows on the CA125 test).

I had an instinct that my cancer is a very fast moving type, so I had tests done behind my gyn onc back, who insisted that the proper protocol is CA125 and scan every three months. I feel vindicated. If I had followed the good doctor's order like a sheep, the cancer would be spread all over before the "NEXT SCHEDULED" tests and scans are performed. I also had a good fortune of being followed and "studied" very carefully by the research team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC and also a very good personal friend who is an OB/GYN, who gave me a prescription for the test I wanted - the tests that were outside the normal schedule by both MSKCC and my gyn oncologist. And, this is how I caught my recurrence at a very early stage. If I had not been so vocal about what needs to be done based on my "hunch", this cancer would be growing and spreading all over the place while I wait for the next tests according to the official schedule. I don't think my gyn oncologist will ever again throw the book at me about the "standard" following monitoring schedule of 3 months. I am the kind of patient who should be monitored very frequently.

Again, I really hope your sensations are NOT cancer related. Good luck.