spine mets from breast cancer?

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angelpie7me
angelpie7me Member Posts: 11
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
Hi all,
I am somewhat new to this website, but I absolutely enjoy the chats and all the help you've already given me. I have some more questions and was wondering if anybody out there has experienced this. Not even a month after my radiation was over from breast cancer, I developed terrible back pain. Pain in the neck and shoulder blade on the side where they radiated as well. The back pain is intolerable. I try to lay down, after a while it hurts. I try to sit up, after a while it hurts. By the end of the day, I am truly exhausted and in agony. They did a bone scan, and I just heard from the surgeon they found a spot on L4, and L5. They are sending me for an immediate back MRI tomorrow. The strange thing is that it's the middle of my back that is so darned painful. Has anyone else had something that showed in the lower spine but the pain seemed higher?

Thanks for your time and help!
Angelpie

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  • 24242
    24242 Member Posts: 1,398
    #2
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    Deffered pain is something that happens often, the pain is really one place but effects another nerve instead. I have suffered many problems with pain but not a reoccurance of my breast cancer. So yes it is possible to feel pain one place but not actually being the place of pain origin. After my cancer I found I had several kinds of arthritis as well as several nerve disorders the result of side effects from treatments. I also found I had degenerative back
    disorder, where the vertabra are colapsing on each other in the middle of my back. The pain I have experienced after my fight has been unbearable but I have found many things that have helped me along the way.
    My thoughts are with you,
    Tara
  • angelpie7me
    angelpie7me Member Posts: 11
    #3
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    24242 said:

    Deffered pain is something that happens often, the pain is really one place but effects another nerve instead. I have suffered many problems with pain but not a reoccurance of my breast cancer. So yes it is possible to feel pain one place but not actually being the place of pain origin. After my cancer I found I had several kinds of arthritis as well as several nerve disorders the result of side effects from treatments. I also found I had degenerative back
    disorder, where the vertabra are colapsing on each other in the middle of my back. The pain I have experienced after my fight has been unbearable but I have found many things that have helped me along the way.
    My thoughts are with you,
    Tara

    Thank you for replying Tara. I feel like I'm going crazy in all the pain. I am currently waiting the results of the back MRI, and yes, I'm kind of nervous to what they find. Although at this point, I'm ready to do what I need to in order to alleviate the pain. I'm sorry that you have been in so much pain yourself.. This is the part of cancer that tries to beat us down. Everything else is a lot less annoying. If you don't mind, I might refer back to you if they find that it isn't bone mets, but arthritis. Maybe you will be able to tell me what meds work well and which ones don't.
    Thank you for your help!
    Angelpie
  • Idalia
    Idalia Member Posts: 76
    #4
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    Dear Angelpie (delicious name by the way!) I haven't heard of radiation causing bone pain. My spine mets were treated with radiation and gave me pain relief quickly. I had an MRI first and then a bone scan - both are effective diagnosis tools and revealed all my bone mets, even the spots which had no pain or symptoms yet. If the bone scan did't show cancer in your neck or shoulder blade, I would suspect something else. An MRI could show soft tissue as well as bone, so there may be a pinched nerve or joint problem. Normally, spinal pain flows downhill. When my L3 vertebrae fractured from a bone met, I had pain in my lower back and thighs. Pain is depressing to live with, but hopefully, they will find a treatment for yours soon. Good luck.

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