Rads for Pain

jobur

Hi All!

Mets to hip have me in a lot of pain lately. With gardening season (which I dearly love) just around the corner here and getting up and down from the ground excruciatingly painful, I am thinking of rads. I would very much appreciate hearing your experiences (both good and bad) with radiation to alleviate pain, especially to the pelvic girdle.

Thanks in advance,

Jo

exbrnxgrl

hi jobur,

I did not have any pain with my bone met but it was in the same general area as yours. I had rads x15 to my upper femur. My skin held up well and the only real side effect I had was odd diarrhea for the last week. All in all I thought it was quite easy but the objective was to kill the met not pain relief

Anonymous

Jobur - I had five sessions to a nasty lesion in my right sacrum that was causing a lot of problems - pain, loss of leg function, etc. The radiation effects are cumulative; I think they said 12 weeks it would continue impacting the cancer. Over time the pain and functionality improved and I havent had pain or problems with that leg since and that was November of 19. I had or two days of pretty strong D, but nothing some immodium couldn't take care of. I applied the paraffin lotion to the spot and didn't have an issue with skin burning, and there was maybe a little bit of fatigue but frankly I was such a mess at that point it just rolled up into one big fatigue ball anyway.

Id want to take care of anything that was causing pain and impacting mobility cause once that mobility starts to go/is lost that's an even bigger challenge to overcome.

jobur

exbrxgirl- Although your case is certainly not typical, it's great to hear it was an easy experience and took care of that single met for good. I think I read somewhere here on the forum that you are planning to retire soon? If so, big congrats to you!

SondraF- Thank you for your response, your symptoms were much like mine are now. It's good to hear your reaction to radiation in this area was quite tolerable and you had no long term problems afterward. Do you remember how long it took after rads for your symptoms to improve? I had hoped it would be immediate, but that is probably expecting too much. Excellent point on preventing any loss of mobility! I really feel I can get back to "normal" at this point, but if this pain and difficulty moving continues too long it may become impossible.

exbrnxgrl

jobur,

Thank you! I will be retiring at the end of this school year

Sadiesservant

Jobur,

I have had four separate treatments for pain/issues associated with bone mets, one to the hip/pelvis and all have been relatively easy to tolerate with good results. The first was to my lumbar spine to treat a sudden and severe bout of sciatica resulting from tumours pressing on my spine. The relief was almost instantaneous - it was amazing - and I don't recall any significant side effects.

Next up was the hip. While I have had some trouble with my right hip ever since my original chemo (I blame it on the heavy duty treatment destroying cartilage) it got to the point that I could barely walk and the pain was radiating into my groin. It wasn’t a complete response but again, significant improvement. The one major side effect which you may need to be aware of depending on location, it caused some discomfort to the vaginal wall. It was pretty immediate. When I got off the table I thought whoa, can I walk to my car? It’s an area with a lot of nerve endings and unfortunately few treatments can avoid all other tissues. However, the discomfort only lasted a couple of days.

The next was my sacrum. In that case I had some itching and discomfort on my lower back. The skin is very thin there and so this effect is common. My latest treatments were to deal with the onset of severe headaches from mets in my cervical spine and base of my skull. I had five rounds of radiation for that. This was by far the most challenging from a side effect perspective but the results were fantastic. I was fortunate that I did not get the sore throat that is possible but did have some weird neck/back of skull pain that came on late and took a few weeks to subside. The worst thing for me was dry mouth and a complete loss of taste. I found that super depressing as food was so unappealing. I was constantly looking for something that had taste or was palatable but for weeks only chicken soup would do. Thankfully my taste gradually came back and was pretty much back to normal by about six weeks. This was a bonus as apparently it often takes three months!

Hope this helps. Pat

Anonymous

Jobur - it definitely wasn't immediate pain relief like Sadie had, but I had been living with increasing pain and loss of ability to lift the leg for almost 9 months at that point (and suspect the met itself had started about a year before thinking back over some early symptoms). It eventually fractured (I think - they don't really tell you anything in this country) and I was on crutches to walk and they gave me oral morphine for the pain (which did nothing). I could not bear weight on the leg and I could not raise it.

I had the rads first week of December and by Christmas I was able to help make quite a bit of the meal with the help of alternating ibuprofen and paracetemol and sitting down when I needed to (I don't tolerate naproxen very well). And while I didn't quite dance off the table like Sadie up there, by my 5th rads I was able to put my pants on and take the bus home myself and slowly walk the quarter mile home from the bus stop (20 mins it took!) with the crutches. For the mapping session and my first two appointments I needed Other Half and two Ubers! A few weeks later that 20 minute walk was closer to 8 and I was dashing up to the grocery store (with the crutches still, but able to walk a few steps each time) to pick up gift deliveries. By mid Feb I was down to one crutch and had just moved on to a cane when Covid hit and I finally was able to give up the cane for good by June. I think a lot of that was simply not trusting my spine along with worry about stability and losing a lot of muscle mass and stamina. Its all good now and while sometimes there are little twinges when I have done too much, I don't worry about it.

Zillsnot4me

very timely post. Great sharing ladies. Anyone have rads to the sternum?

jobur

Hi Pat, Thanks for relating your experiences with rads in 4 different areas. I'm glad to hear you got good and relatively fast results without a lot of bad side effects. I can't imagine what that vaginal wall discomfort was like, but maybe I will find out, ha ha! I can definitely see where the cervical radiation could cause more problems. Fortunately it sounds like they did not last too long and alleviated those awful headaches. Did those radiation treatments get you anywhere near the max of what you can receive? Thanks again for your response and I'll "see" you later on the Xeloda thread.

Sondra, Your posts brought back a lot of memories and gave me some good food for thought. Your experiences in 2019 sound so much like mine before I was dx'd in 2014. I was in severe back/leg pain for 4 months when I found out I had breast cancer. It was another 2 months (after lumpectomy) before I was scanned and found out I had lesions throughout my thoracic and lumbar spine. I've always been a physically active person and found the loss of mobility even more devastating than learning I was stage IV. I didn't have a fracture like you did, but getting back to full mobility took well over a year. At that time I was in such a state of shock and awe I didn't even consider radiation (though I think it was suggested and probably would have helped) and didn't know if I would ever be able to walk without assistance again. I don't feel like I have that kind of time now to wait and hope systemic tx alone will help. I think you are right about recovery taking longer when muscle mass, confidence in stability, and stamina have all taken a hit. It makes sense that the longer you live with immobility, the longer it takes it recover. I am so glad to hear you say you are doing much better now, but I can tell it has been a long process. I hope you get many good years out of Ibrance, it is a great drug and can keep this shitty disease from progressing for a long time. Fingers crossed. Thanks again for your detailed and thoughtful replies, they really helped me to assess my current situation and feel that I am making the right decision about getting rads at this time.

Zillls, Hope this bump to the topic will get you some responses regarding rads to sternum. Best wishes!