Mets to ribs or sternum

Hi steelergirl. Hope you get to the bottom of it on the 13th. As for mets to ribs and sternum and a reference, I have both. The rib mets feel like broken ribs (if you've ever broken one, that's what it feel like). The sternum mets are quite painful. When I was first diagnosed, it hurt to clear my throat, cough, even breathe. When I sneezed, I almost passed out. Also, back pain, which sometimes hurt as much in the back as in the front, even though I didn't have spine mets at the time. I also had a quite  palpable lump there. Those were my physical symptoms, along with generally feeling unwell. No nausea, no vomiting with those mets. I assume you're liver has already been looked at? Good luck to you.

This all happened back in '06. I had a persistent pain in my chest and in my ribs and it hurt when I rolled around in bed. Doctor sent me for an x-ray in April,  which showed nothing out of the ordinary.  By July it was getting worse and it started to hurt when I twisted. Doctor figured it was costochondritis and started treating me for that with anti-inflammatories and cortisone shots. That didn't really help. I told him that I thought my cancer was back and he told me that it would be a strange place for cancer to spread, especially since I had been cancer-free since '95 (he obviously was soooo wrong). He was sure it was costochondritis and it would take a while for treatment to work. Whatever, I was naive and took him at his word. By November, it was hurting to cough and sneeze and I felt like crap.  In December, at work, I lifted a box of paper and I heard a snap and the pain brought me to my knees. Luckily, I was working in a hospital, so I got wheeled down to Emergency where another x-ray was ordered, followed by a CT and a bone scan. Doctor said he ordered all three because he wasn't sure what they were looking for. Got the bad news that night. Those were the only two scans I got, along with the x-ray but after those, I had already been told it was probably cancer by the results of those scans and they were going to schedule a biopsy to confirm. Never had a PET, to this day. I did have one MRI, later on when I had further spread, but that was when I needed rads to the spine and they needed the extra view.

I've seen several women on here blown off with the costochondritis story, so I try to tell everyone I can that it should be looked into further if they have a history of bc.

I sincerely hope you don't have to go through any drama to find out what's wrong and that when you do, it's something less serious. Just don't let anyone tell you it's costochondritis if it isn't getting better. I learned the hard way, with months of needless suffering. Hope to hear good news when you get to the bottom of it.