Hope someone can help!

SimoneJ

Hi, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer 1/09, had a double mastecomy, chemo and radiation. Heres my problems, I continue to have a burning pain in my back and the bones in my legs are constantly hurting. I have had a bone scan and back scan, everything looks good. Has anyone experienced these symptoms? I am getting really frustrated.

Thanks

Medigal

Simone, just curious.  Are you on Tamoxifen or Arimidex?  Hope you find out what exactly  is causing your specific pains especially since the scans looked good.  I have a lot of these type pains but I have been on Arimidex for over 5 years so it is expected.  Best of luck to you!

SimoneJ

I was on TCH. I orginally thought the herceptin was causing the pain but I have been off of herceptin since March.

fightinhrd123

Herceptin did it to me, ive been of since september, and i can still sometimes feel it.  Also the Taxol caused me a great deal of pain, so i think its just a combo for me!

nobleanna007

I still am having SE from my chemo, had every test done, I do show some spots on spine which they are watching but at this time its still chalked up to neuropthy from the chemo. I live with heating pads which I look like someone beat me, no explanation for this since the heating pads shut off, pain meds for 3yrs. Just went off them cause I was at the point of having to up them and not work or work! LIFE SUCKS!!! I love my job but it is physically draining. I am bummed cause I do not know how much more I can take. I feel your pain!!!! I have started drinking more cause it numbs it, which is no life also, but I am at wits end like you! I just want it to stop!!!!! I am having PSTD, from this and can not seem to get my life together due to the pain. I have tried everything , I am scheduled to see someone who does cancer massage and knows about this so I am in hopes it will help, but I have to work to pay for this so its a catch 20!!!! I wish you healing and pm if you want, I am not on alot ut do check once in awhile at least twice a month.

Hugs!

B.

Joviangeldeb

I, too, experience back pain and leg weakness and knee pain, since undergoing my cancer treatment. I have difficulty going up and down stairs. I can't kneel or squat.   I've been through pet scans and xrays.  my doctors have determined I have arthritis in my spine and that the chemotherapy damaged the soft tissue (tendons, muscles, etc) in my knees and legs.  The orthopoedic doctor tells me unfortunatley he can't do anything with my legs.  Fortunately I can walk fine, so I just decided to deal with it and I try not to let it get me down. I go to a chiropractor if the pain gets bad in my back. It helps quite a bit.   I've also had ALOT of gi problems since cancer treatment.  In the past 2 years, I've had c diff for 6 months which resulted in two 7 day hospital stays before they were able to diagnose me.  I have chronic nausea and vomiting.  Last year I also had my gall bladder out cuz they found through tests, it was non functioning.  They tested me for lactose intolerance and its positive, so now I lay off that. Nausea and vomiting has gotten so bad and affecting my work, home life.  So my Gi Doc did an egd, which showed just minor inflammation of the lining on the stomach.  Didn't show any infection so he attributes it to nsaids or stress. I've been on two prescription strength prilosec per day. I had been living on phenergan at home which put me in a drug induced sleepiness, and zofran at work.  Zofran didn't work too well but helped some.  he's scheduled me for a gastric emptying test and switched my medication to Reglan.  This has helped me tremedously, So I think this might be what's causing it: Gastroparesis. 

Has anyone else had all the stomach issues following chemo?  I'm thinking it was the chemo that started all this mess. 

Sorry this is so long. it's just that I've been struggling with it for so long. I go monday for the gastric test and have had one bout with nausea last night and this am, so I'm wiating to make sure I can hold down breakfast and then will go into work late, if I do good. 

Take care everyone,

deb

dlb823

Simone, I can't address the possibility that your ongoing pain might be Herceptin related, but I can tell you that after I finished 4 rounds of TC + Neulasta, I had horrible leg pain, especially in my right leg, that felt like it was deep in the bone.  It was especially bad when I laid down at night, to the point that I couldn't sleep.  I also experienced such muscle weakness that I could not easily climb a flight of stairs.  In fact, after climbing quite a few steps with great difficulty at an event in a large arena about 2 mos. after my last chemo, I sat there totally depressed, wondering if chemo had instantly propelled me into old-age, and afraid I might never fully recover.

But the good news is that both of those post-chemo problems slowly resolved themselves as I got my strength back.  While I was having the severe leg pain, I found that elevating my leg with a pillow gave me some relief, as did a topical cream with MSM in it.  As I recall, it was by Natrol, available in any natural foods market.  The other thing that I think helped tremendously is that right after rads, I started walking for exercise.  Back then, I could barely do a couple of miles.  A year later, I was looking forward to my 5 or 6 mile morning walk, which I think has been a huge help not only to rebuilding my leg strength, but also emotionally.  And as most of us know, research now shows that exercise can help prevent a recurrence. 

The other thing I did after chemo was some mild detoxing, starting with a gentle liver cleansing product, to rid my body of excess toxins.  The walking also helps with that because it gets you sweating out the toxins.

I'm so sorry that you and nobleanna and deb are still dealing with post-chemo issues.  Obviously, chemo and other drugs just hit some of us much harder than others.  But I hope my experience will give you hope that there can be much improvement ahead, and that exercise -- as hard as that may be to do right now -- can be a huge help in both getting the toxins out of our bodies and rebuilding our chemo-weakened muscles.    Deanna