Tamoxifen and back pain

letmywifelive
letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
edited March 2016 in Hormonal Therapy - Before, During, and After

My wife is also having severe lower back pain which comes and goes and stays for 3 - 5 days at a time. It also moves from side to side. She is on Tamoxifen for about 2 years and this has gradually become more frequent. Any clues if this is caused by Tamoxifen. Interestingly whenever she had to stop T for any surgeries, the pain went away and came back as soon as she started T again. Doctors say it is not related to T but I find the coincidence hard to believe. In between, there was not pain for about a month even while on T. That happened around January of this year.

Any feedback, comments will be appreciated.

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Comments

  • GG27
    GG27 Member Posts: 2,128
    edited February 2016

    Your wife should let her DR's know that she is having ongoing back pain.

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited February 2016

    We did inform the onc but she said that its not worrisome since the pain moves from place to place and is not a dull ache. But at the same time the pain is making her daily activities difficult.

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  • GG27
    GG27 Member Posts: 2,128
    edited February 2016

    I would let the Dr's know each & everytime she goes to see them that she is still having this pain. My onc recommends taking 1 tylenol & 1 ibuprofen, which I find really helps.

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited February 2016

    Thanks. For the past 1 week she is also having pretty bad constipation. Just came out of nowhere.

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  • GG27
    GG27 Member Posts: 2,128
    edited February 2016

    That could be a cause of the back pain as well.


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  • Manu14
    Manu14 Member Posts: 153
    edited February 2016

    I developed lower back aches and pains while on Tamoxifen and my onc agreed it might be a side effect. I developed other problems too which led me to discontinue Tamoxifen, but my lower back pain was gone within a week of stopping.

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited March 2016

    My wifewas just diagnosed with bone mets today.

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  • jpr143
    jpr143 Member Posts: 26
    edited March 2016

    I'm sorry to hear about the bone mets. If you don't mind, how did they find those? I am on Tamoxifen and having some lower back/pelvic pain.

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited March 2016

    he doctor asked for an x-ray of pelvis and lower back just to check if there any back issues. They did not suspect that cancer has spread.

    But during x-ray they saw something suspicious and sent for ct scan. It was found during ct scan.

    I hope and pray that you are doing just fine but please do take a second opinion or ask for any necessary scans even if the doctors do not take it seriously. It's your life, not the doctor's.

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited March 2016

    GG27,

    If you do not mind telling, where did the cancer spread in your case

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  • GG27
    GG27 Member Posts: 2,128
    edited March 2016

    Mine spread to my bones, namely spine, rib, upper arm, hip & eye socket. I wanted your wife to get the back pain checked but I didn't want to bring up mets. I thought my pain was from too much gardening & I spent a year & a good deal of $ at the chiropractor when it turned out to be mets.

    22 months after stage IV diagnosis I am stable & living life the same as I did prior. The is the scariest part of the whole thing, the not knowing. GG

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited March 2016

    Thanks GG27. She has many spots all along her spine and pelvis. Hoping that is treatable

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited March 2016

    GG27, you may want to check out CDK-4/6 (Lbrance).

    http://www.kantarhealth.com/blog/stephanie-hawthor...

    The report says that it extends progression free survival from 7.5 month (Femera alone) to 26 months when combined with CDK-4/6. Thats significant in my opinion.

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  • GG27
    GG27 Member Posts: 2,128
    edited March 2016

    Ibrance is not yet approved here in Canada, possibly later this year, it's available through a trial, but I won't be changing anything until arimidex fails. At the moment I am very stable. But thank you for the link, I appreciate it.

    LMWL, You don't show any stats on your wife's cancer, so we don't know what she is dealing with & what could be used for treatment. Is she hormone receptor postive? negative? ILC, IDC, you get the point. All of these have different treatment options.

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  • letmywifelive
    letmywifelive Member Posts: 360
    edited March 2016

    GG27, we are still waiting for the biopsy report with hormone receptor status for the mets. Original tumor was ER+/PR+/HER2-. It was both ILC and IDC.

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  • Goodie16
    Goodie16 Member Posts: 446
    edited March 2016

    letmywifelive, you might want to check out the stage IV boards. The women there are fantastic and have a lot of info on living with and managing stage IV BC. There's even an entire thread dedicated to bone mets.
    I've been living with mets for 13 months now. I'm currently NED and praying to stay that way for many years to come.

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