Bone pain after chemo

mel39
mel39 Member Posts: 16
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I know many of you have complained about bone pain. I've even seen a few postings about it. I am almost 6 months out of chemo and my bones are still hurting -- mostly my ankles, feet and elbows. I've had another bone scan which showed everything ok but I still worry about mets to the bone. Did anybody else have this? And how long did the pain take to go away? Or will it ever go away? Did anybody have pain that DID show mets to the bone? If so, how far out from chemo? I was stage 1 when the BC was found, no lymph node involvement.

Comments

  • chhristin
    chhristin Member Posts: 7
    #2
    I am 1 year out of chemo and radiation I had stage 3 w/2 out of 5 lymphnode. I still have bone pain and no mets. mostly hips and from my knees down. Seems from talking to different people at differents stages some still have it and some don't. There are days I feel ok and days it is bad. Guess it just takes time. There are more good days than bad. Hope it goes away for you soon!!
  • epgnyc
    epgnyc Member Posts: 137
    #3
    I was also Stage I with no nodes and like you suffered tremendously from bone pain following chemo and radiation. It took 6 - 9 months after the end of all treament for it to subside. I took with Glucosamine/Condroitin (sp?)with my oncologist's blessing and it seemed to help a bit. But the big healer was time. Good luck.
  • Ellison
    Ellison Member Posts: 68
    #4
    I had stage 3 with clear nodes. I was a year out from treatment and radiation. I started having pain in my right hip and it wraped around the pelvic area. I went to my regular doctor who ordered a full body xray. It showed severe arthritus in the hip and knee. I was given pain meds. He didn't tell me about what else he saw.

    The xray also showed dark spots in the pelvic area. He called my oncologist and she got in touch with me right away for a full body scan and MRI. It came back with bone mets to the pelvic area. That ruled out brain, lungs and liver.

    I went on vacation first before starting treatment and I could actually feel the cancer going up because it was painful. When I got back I had another test and it showed mets to the spine.

    My oncologist said she has patients with bone mets and they do not have pain.

    I can understand why you would be worried, eventhough your scan came back showing no mets to the bones. You did the right thing by getting a scan.
  • 24242
    24242 Member Posts: 1,398 Member
    #5
    Yes it is true bone pain is very common, but worrying is not good. Worry leads to stress and that happens to be the worst we can do for ourselves. I too had black areas, not hot spots like are what shows for bone cancer, black areas of bone degeneration and arthritus. As it turns out the side effects from treatments can cause or cause the onset of arthritus. It took me years for doctors to admit this was true, wanting to ignore my pain when in fact it was caused by something. I too couldn't help but think it was cancer since I had no trust in medical community but a good pain specialist sure cured me of that.
    Be good to yourself,
    Tara
  • baxter31
    baxter31 Member Posts: 1
    #6
    my husband had chemo and radiation l l/2 years ago for sm. cell lung cancer. In July of this year he had brain mets. After full brain radiation and after 1 1/2 yrs.from chemo, he is experiencing mod. to severe bone/muscle pain (shoulder,neck, arm, calve, hip). His docs seem perplexed. and I don't understand why.

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