What does it feel like when it metastatsizes to the shoulder?

sillyoldrabbit

The past few days, the area hear the front, top of my left humerus bone has felt bruised, tender. My original triple negative tumor was also on the left side, so not too far away from the painful area. I'm fighting with panic mode. Having to wait two weeks to see if it resolves by itself -- well, I'm sure you all know how unpleasant that is. I've been icing it on the off-chance it's just some kind of weird injury, and the ice does actually seem to help. In my favor, I did achieve PCR after chemo, surgery, and rads, and my most recent blood work (in May) was all normal. Nodes were clear. However, my original tumor was extremely aggressive, so who knows where it might still be lurking.

Is there anyone out there who has experienced a metastasis of this type and can tell me what it felt like?

Natch, if it's still there after the required 2 weeks, I'll be checking in with my MO.

exbrnxgrl

sillyrabbit,

Not everyone experiences bone metastases in the same way. Some have no pain or symptoms at all and others have various types and degrees of pain. Even if someone posted here that they had the exact same pain in the exact same spot and then found out they did or didn’t have mets, that would mean very little in terms of your case! I’m sure a good number of us on the stage IV forum have lived through the “two weeks of terror” one or more times. It is stressful and nerve wracking time but take some deep breaths and whatever else you need to do to relax a bit. Wishing you the best

sillyoldrabbit

Thanks for responding, exbrnxgrl. You're no doubt correct about the unpredictability of the symptoms, unfortunately. Gonna be a dandy couple of weeks, to be sure. I can always obsess about Covid if I need something to take my mind off it. Ugh.

exbrnxgrl

Hang in there my friend! You have my empathy, my sympathy and then some but you will get through it 😊.

KBeee

Keep a journal so you can track anything that makes it better or worse, if it is improving, staying the same, etc. Hoping it is benign

sillyoldrabbit

Thank you, so much, kind ladies. Looks like you both have really been through it! I tried ice for 2 days, today heat and even Tiger Balm! Pain sometimes seems to lessen after these treatments, but don't know if that's just my hopeful imagination. It's also hard to tell if the painful sensation is coming from bone or soft tissue. Wherever, it's just plain weird. Like nothing I've ever felt before. Oddly enough, my husband seems to have exactly the same thing happening on his hip bone, but he has no history of cancer.

exbrnxgrl

KBee, I laughed when I read your post. I used to have an incredible memory so when I was first dx’ed I never wrote anything down. Well, here I am almost 9 years later and my memory is shot! If I don’t write things down then they don’t exist 😅

Silly old rabbit, I don’t know how old you are but I’m thinking you’re probably not 25 😊. Some years ago when I was having some aches and pains, I complained to my mo. She was silent for a minute and then said, in the gentlest voice, “Well, you are in your 60’s. Let’s give arthritis a consideration before progression.” It was the first time I realized that if I was going to live with mbc, I was going to have to live with aging too

wrenn

Silly, I am triple neg (left side) and had a sore left shoulder and upper arm. Because of my age I assumed it was arthritis and tried to ignore it and sleep on my right side. I had a chest CT for unrelated things and it showed arthritis and subluxation of humerus.

Reading your post made me relieved to have mostly moved on from assuming aches and pains were progression. It is really hard to not go there the first few years. I hope you can find a distraction until you find out what is happening. Be good to yourself. :-)

And yeah Covid is a great thing if you need to ruminate. That one has my nerves frayed. We have our border closed to the U.S. and are doing well mostly but you never know when it might flare up.

Take care

DodgersGirl

SillyOldRabbit: my pain in my left shoulder started out as just a deep ouch feeling. I thought it was from starting to use a cane.

While in the hospital over the winter, the pain increased. It hurt to reach out for things or grab things. I am left handed so it was a problem. I mentioned it to the doctor. He said to wait to see if it improved. A week after being released from the hospital, I had my first bone scan. I mentioned the soreness to the techs. They took several pictures of that area. Bone scan showed mets in my arm and collarbone.

I refused to not be able to use my left arm. Kept telling myself the pain was mind over matter. I would intentionally use my arm, stretching it out more and more. Within a couple of weeks, I could brush my hair and brush my teeth with my left arm. I felt victorious. It is still sore from time to time, especially when I write or type with it.

My bone scan in May still talked about bone mets but said that was secondary to my healing fracture of my collarbone. Am guessing that caused my pain?

Hope you get a different outcome. I am sharing my story should you want to ask additional questions

sillyoldrabbit

xbrnxgrl, you got me! I'm almost 50 years north of 25. I would be overjoyed if it turned out to be arthritis, but seems to me there would be pain with movement if that was the case. I've got full range of motion with zero pain. Just hurts when I touch it.

Wrenn, was your shoulder pain similar to mine?

DodgersGirl, how are they going to treat your bone mets? (I grew up in Brooklyn with the original Dodgers. Was definitely a Dodgers girl then.)

Covid. Who would think to count it a blessing for its distraction value? What a world!

Ladies, I know you can't diagnose me, but talking about it here does help with anxiety. Realizing I miss this community. I relied on it so much during my treatment year, but when I was done, I didn't want to think about cancer anymore so haven't posted. If nothing else comes of this, I think I'll find a way to stay involved now.

wrenn

Silly, It's hard to compare pain but I guess what you described is about what I noticed. I first noticed that it hurt when I would sleep on my left side. I would wake up with worse pain and it was hard to move my arm. It wouldn't really hurt much after that and especially when I slept on right side. I only incidentally found out it was a subluxation and arthtiis from the scan for something else so I would say it isn't bothering me that much. I am 73 so assumed arthritis given I have it many other places.

I think your main issue right now is not progression but anxiety so try to focus on that until something changes. I have panic attacks from any physical 'twinge' and have to sit and breathe and remind myself that it is anxiety and try to 'fix' that. Again I am 7 years out so I have had practice with that but I think it might help to address your anxiety for what it is right now and come here to vent as much as you want. We all get how helpful that is.

DodgersGirl

SillyOldRabbit: my treatment plan for bone mets is Ibrance for 3 weeks, then 1 week off; daily Letrozole (both Ibrance and Letrozole are pills); and monthly I get an XGEVA shot (bone strengthner)

sillyoldrabbit

DodgersGirl, that doesn't sound TOO ghastly. So no plans for surgery or radiation?

Everyone, here's an update. I feel like I've once again lived up to my SillyOldRabbit screen name. Yesterday, after showering, I happened to glance in the mirror and, lo and behold, there is an actual, visible yellow/brown bruise right where the pain is located. This threw me because when I look at the painful area without a mirror, I see nothing at all. Remarkable phenomenon because it's actually in a spot that I can see clearly without a mirror -- right there in my line of sight. So, now, hopefully all I have is an unexplained bruise. Only cause I can think of is a wrestling match with my stubborn, cranky, old ironing board.

Must be some deep life lessons here somewhere, like cranky ironing boards should be replaced? Or always look in a mirror? Or more meaningfully, maybe it's time to stop trying to bury my cancer experience under a cloud of forgetfulness and accept that it will always be with me - whatever happens. Something feels right about that. Gotta stop running from it.

Thanks for listening and being here!!!!

wrenn

You are sooooo not silly.

MinusTwo

Rabbit - or here's one better - I haven't used my ironing board in several years. It is also 'cranky'. So I stopped ironing.

DodgersGirl

SillyOldRabbit— hope the bruise is the answer!

No surgery for collarbone. I am holding off on rads to see if Ibrance stops the bone mets.