My wife is having lower back pain... concerned

kennya123

I've been a lurker on here ever since my wife was diagnosed with stage 3C triple negative BC back in October of 2015 at the age of 31 She did chemo AC followed by Taxol. The tumor, which was originally 4.8cm shrunk to 4mm. The lymph nodes were tested and 2/7 were positive. She had her lumpectomy in May and is currently in radiation. A couple weeks ago she started feeling lower back pain that comes and goes. Sometimes it comes up on the right side of her back some times on the left sometimes it's in the lower middle back. Sometimes she feels what she describes as sciatic pain down her left leg. Motrin usually makes it go away and a heating pad does help but we have a 19 month old daughter and my wife said the first instance of pain was when she bent over to get her. She thinks it's muscle but its location frequency and sharpness is not consistent and she says she doesn't know if it could be bone pain or not.

We're going to talk to the oncologist about it and get his opinion. The radiation oncologist does not seem to think its bone mets because it comes and goes, when he pressed on certain spots it did not hurt her. Some days she feels a mild pulling but no pain, others like last night, it wakes her up from sleep.

The other thing that the radiation oncologist seemed fixated on was that her bone scan from October (before any chemo or treatment) came back perfect with no indication of potential trouble spots. He suggested that she talk to her GP about it because he doesn't believe it's cancer related.

I'm just kind of venting all my stress out here, thank you for listening.

Ken

70charger

Ken sorry u are dealing with this. IT's hard not to worry. We have a saying on here "Don't worry til u have a reason to worry". In other words have it checked out for peace of mind. We also have the 2 week rule. If u still have symptoms after 2 weeks get it checked. Wishing u all the best.

kennya123

thank you, it's been a few weeks now so we're going to talk to her oncologist. It always seems to work out the that her back doesn't hurt when she goes to radiation. FYI her ladiation is on her left breast, armpit and left side of her neck. She woke me up at 2:30am this morning with her back pain to go get her Motrinand I couldn't sleep so I had a lot of time to think and read.

Ken

Denise-G

As my nurse practitioner said to me, "sometimes you just have a back ache." And the good news is your wife is having sciatic pain! It is so difficult not to get totally stressed over each and every pain. I've put myself through it for almost 5 years. My sister recently completed treatment and is stressing over every thing. As time passes, you learn to talk to yourself and ask "why might this be happening" instead of immediately going to mets.

Also, I've learned through the years by talking with hundreds of breast cancer patients that during radiation, it is an extremely emotional time. Active treatment is almost over and the worries are escalated!

Sending my best to you and your wife!!

SpecialK

I had degenerated disk issues prior to diagnosis which have flared periodically and caused intense pain since so I understand your concern, of course the mind always goes to the worst case scenario. I am so sorry that you are dealing with this at such a young age, with a young child. I am wondering if what your wife may be experiencing is late-onset pain from chemo. Seeing that she is TN, did she have a taxane drug as part of her cocktail - and was it the last drug? Sometimes you can have neuropathy or bone pain that occurs after chemo is done, particularly from taxanes (Taxol, Taxotere and Abraxane), even if you didn't experience it during chemo itself. I would certainly address this with your MO since the pain has lasted this long, and is so close to treatment. Wishing you and your family the best.

kennya123

thank you,

She did have taxol weekly from January to the beginning of April. She had the nail issues, they are finally growing out. She doesn't remember any serious back pain before that in life but there were times that she had knee pain in the back of her knees when she was younger, from childhood until about a year ag

Anonymous

Ken,

I've been dealing with sciatic pain from a herniated disc for a few years before being diagnosed with breast cancer. Your wife might have tweaked her back picking up your daughter.

When I have sciatic pain, the best thing I've found is to get into a heel drop position with my back against the wall. I put a foot stool near the wall and put the balls of my feet on the stool. Feet are hip width apart with outer foot perpendicular to the wall. I try to touch the wall with my calves and shoulder blades. I stay in this position for several minutes (3-10 minutes).

I only recently learned this after reading about postural alignment exercises based on the Egoscue method. There are videos online on other exercises. Some are less than 15 minutes long.

kennya123

she talked to her radiation oncologist who spoke to her MO who suggested an x-Ray as the first step, so I'm waiting at the hospital right now while she's getting an x-Ray. She woke up at 8am with back pain this morning, after taking Motrin at 2:30am. Her pain seems focused in her lower back just off to the right of the spine. She says the pain is radiating from there across her lower back and some pain on her left rear end down to about mid hamstring. I'll update when we know more.

kennya123

we heard back from the MO, he told us that the x-rays came back negative, there was nothing in the bone images that he was concerned about. No soft spots in the bone, collapsed vertebrae or anything else He wants to do a PET scan to see if there is anything going on in the organs (or the bones that the x-Ray didn't see).

My wife's back pain is coming back right now, about 6 hours after she took Motrin which seems to be the general pattern.

KBeee

hoping it is a benign cause which they can pinpoint. Sorry she is dealing with this. I know it must be stressful for both of you

Anonymous

I'm so sorry to hear she's in so much pain. Motrin only lasts 4-6 hours. She needs prescription meds so she can sleep through the night.

When I had extreme nerve and muscle pain, I was given prescription pain, muscle relaxant, and anti-inflammatory meds as well as Lyrica (for the nerve pain). I was down to just Flexeril and Lyrica, but last month I dropped the Flexeril when I found the postural alignment exercises. I also lowered the Lyrica dose, but won't drop it while I'm on Taxol (on steroid high now).

I'm not kidding when I say that 5-10 minutes of the heel drop against the wall make the pain go away faster than the meds. My pain can go from my butt down to my foot sometimes, but it usually stops mid-hamstring. I will do the heel drop in the morning when I wake and after anything that causes pain to return. I had 3 years of different therapists who never showed me this method, but all of them would tell me that my hips were out of alignment.

As to the source of the pain, if this started with your wife picking up your daughter, then she may have strained some muscles that can also cause sciatic pain. Since your daughter is a toddler, your wife probably continues to pick her up. I know I did the same when I hurt my wrist while my kids were young. Can't avoid it all the time. So, it may take time to heal, but it's also prone to re-injury. Radiation treatments aren't helpful to back muscle strain either.

I hope the PET scan is clear. I know I had the same worry given I had similar pain.

Please take care of yourself as well.

truecause

Hi kennya123

I am not doctor. consult with doc

Please check her vitamin D, and C. Give her Vitamin C and Vitamin D more then what is required by FDA. since they have minor side effect.

Please check if she has done root canal in past or any metal filling? or if she had Pain in her teeth in past?

Try giving her Turmeric (curcumin 95% with Bioprine)(5 tables 3 times after meal) which is anti-inflammatory.

Ashwagandha and Shatavari 3-4 tables after meal. Or can take tea spoon each with warm low fat organic milk with honey.

Do not aspect result overnight. Take time and find true cause for pain which is more important.

kennya123

she had her pet scan on Thursday, we just got back from the MO's office today. They found a large spot in the joint between the tailbone and the pelvis and two spots higher up on her spine. There was also a small spot on a rib and one lymph node in her arm pit still lighting up.

He is certain that the cancer spread but he still needs to confirm.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, we're both really scared right now but as the Doctor said today, bone mets won't kill you, but they can spread to places that can kill you.

Some times I think we are lucky that we have a local hospital with a cancer center connected to Beth Israel in Boston that is very convenient to get to and has access to great resources because of its connections with bigger hospitals in Boston.

Ke

KBeee

I am so sorry to hear you are dealing with this. Please keep us posted on how things go. There are some good bone Mets threads on the stage 4forum.