Waiting and wondering

Mylittleworld

I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2012 and completed my treatments ( except for arimedex) in 2013. I have been considered to be in remission since then.

For about a month, I've been in a great deal of pain in my lower back and especially my right leg. I started to be worried that maybe I have bone mets. I decided to make my appointment with my PCP instead of my oncologist, because I thought maybe there is another cause as a possibility as well.

She wants me to have an MRI to see if it appears be bone mets. It is scheduled for tomorrow. Here is my question... If they find evidence of cancer, how do they determine if it's mets or a second primary cancer? Thank you for any information you can provide.

Lula73

so sorry to hear you're having this pain and now worry. A biopsy would likely be how they would determine if it's mets or a new primary. On the flip side, there are MANY other things it can be. Doctors like yours who go ahead and take the bull by the horns are the kind I like. This whole let's wait 6 months and take this pain medicine/muscle relaxer and see what changes scares the living daylights out of me. Hopefully you will get good news from the MRI report

Mylittleworld

Thank you Lula73. I really appreciate your response!

KBeee

Hoping you get answers... benign ones.

If they suspect a tumor, they'll likely do a biopsy to see if it is metastatic breast cancer or a different type of cancer. Hoping it is some benign causd

Mylittleworld

Thank you Kbeee. I hope to have an answer on Monday.

sweetbean

Hi there! I had back pain that radiated down my left lower leg. Had scans and a very nerve-wracking week, but iurned out to be sciatica and piri formis syndrome, which can be painful, but aren't cancer. Hope it is nothing!

bevin

I had similar and it ended up being a herniated disc and a spinal cord that needed decompression. had emergency surgery, and I was fine the next day. Hoping you are fine. Good luck and keep us posted.  Its good you are being checked out completely!

Mylittleworld

Thank you sweetbean and Bevin. I appreciate all the replies to my post.

Mylittleworld

The good news is that it's not cancer! The same day that they did the MRI, they also did an x-ray. I have "significant degenerative changes" which I guess means osteoarthritis of the spine. I'm being referred to a neurologist. Thanks again for your responses.

KBeee

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