I told myself I shouldn't do it, but I did anyway...

Deep breath.  Remember, as you said, you are not qualified to read a bone scan.

Dark spots could be anything.  The only indicate an area of bone that absorbed large amounts the tracer.  The reason could be about anything including an old injury, arthritis, infection, etc..

Light spots are more typical of spots that do not absorb tracer, such as cancer.

DO NOT PANIC.  Further tests will likely be ordered to help determine, if needed.  I'm sorry you are back into the waiting game. 

Have you had a CT scan of those areas?  I had a speck show up on my bone scan.  My MO said it would be very unlikely for the spect to be cancer if the CT did not show anything in that area, which mine did not.  The speck turned out to be nothing.  I hope your spots are nothing too!

There can be many reasons the tracer is absorbed faster in some areas of the body, like my aching middle-aged feet. The tech asked me if my feet hurt after the scan. I said, well yes, but that is nothing new. Turned out to be nothing. Try not to freak out too much. Easier said than done, I know.

I had a bone scan Friday. Thank goodness I did not observe the technician even looking at the scans afterward. I would have freaked over what would probably have been nothing also! A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous! My guess is that, like everybody else says, you have nothing to worry about.

Best wishes! 

Thats briiliant. Yay for normal scans! Best wishes x

excellent news!!!

Excellent news. I was going to chime in that my Bone scan "lit UP " too and it was all arthritis, then I read some more posts and saw your latest update. Such good news and in time for the holidays.

Congrats to you!

Bevin

Heather,  I had the mild activity in shoulders too, with moderate activity in right knee cap.  Degenerative pattern does suggest arthritis, I think from aging and activity (not a bad thing), I am 47, my shoulders have never hurt, I am quite active, the knee did not suprise me as it hurts sometimes with lunges, and squats.  What prompted you to have a bone scan?  I had/have tailbone pain, and this area was completely normal.  Hope you are doing well.

tamoxifen did a number on all my joints!  I finally stopped taking it after 1 year (I had a dx of DCIS though). My hips, knees, ankles and actually my thigh bones hurt horribly while on that darn drug and for about 6 months after stopping it too.  Glad to read your scans were clear. 

Congratulations!!  I have been having some neck pain so I had an XRAY done back on October of neck and lungs. Both were clear, neck did show some degeneration, plus I was in a rear end collision a few years ago so I always have some pain.

My questions:  Can an Xray detect otehr abnormalities? and if so I would think the radiologist and my onc would order another test  Second: I heard tamoxofin makes your joints ache so that coudl be it to.

I see my onc on the 20th of January and will ask abotu a scan or a blood test.

Many of you have posted that spots on your bone scan turned out to be arthritis or something other than mets. How did they make that determination? I just had several spots show up on a bone scan "consistent with metastatic disease". I had rheumatic fever when I was a kid and I've had trouble with arthritis most of my life. Most of my spots are in areas where I've had problems with arthritis or where I've had a broken bone. When I mentioned that to the doctors I've seen so far, both of them told me that it's definitely mets and not arthritis. After reading your posts I don't understand how my doctors can be so sure my spots are mets. Could someone please help me understand this?

My mom just had her bone scan and it did lite up in most of her bones. She has been in a lot of pain for about a month now. She is almost 2 years out from her last chemo. She had trip neg idc stage 4. Im so scared and sick with worry. Is there anyone out there currently with M.B.D.? I am aware it is not cureable but I can't seem to find a good answer for survival rate... She will have more info in a couple of days. Is there any way it might be something else when there were so many places glowing and her being in so much pain?