If you are not Stage IV but have questions, you may post here

If you had that kind of pain from liver mets, it would have had to have been there a long time. My guess is muscle spasms from the chemotherapy. It is entering every single cell in your body. The chemo also makes your back hurt. Unless you know in your mind that something isn't right. It's probably the chemo. It is toxic don't forget. Keep track of what you feel and if something persists and doesn't come and go. I would mention it. If the pains hop around, and come and go, my best bet is the chemo. When I was having my heavy chemo I spent a lot of time in bed, which also causes muscles aches and issues. Try to relax. Don't let your mind runaway with you. Best wishes ~M~

Hi all,

hope you are feeling great!!!

I have a couple of questions on mets. I was just told today that I have a recurrence in the chest wall, which is my understanding is a local recurrence and considered IIIC. However, the B.S. says the following:

"we repeated the MRI scan recently. Unfortunately, there is evidence of a chest wall recurrence in the sternum with pleural involvement. This has just been reported

The pleural involvement may mean stage IV, but my RO said that the pleural enhancement may be due to the sensitivity of the MRI and that the CT scan will be a better way of confirming. I have booked the bone scan for next week and waiting for the CT scan.

I have no symptoms other than this weird pain that comes and goes on the left side (side of the recurrence and original dx) but i am not able to locate the origin of the pain as it feel like a muscle spasm but it feels like a bone pain too. So what would be the treatment options? they mentioned surgery, chemo and rads but obviously nothing definite yet until the scans are done.

I haven't read the MRI report as this was just communicated this morning and the report is not ready.

if it is positive for pleural involvement what are the expected survival rates? i know the Drs will have to tell me that but this board has been so helpful when I was first dx 3 years ago so I would like to hear from your experiene. Also the other concern is bone mets and I know some of you ladies are doing well with bone meds but I am worried as I am only 36 and only 3 years out of my original dx and wondering if I can continue to work full time in the future.

on top of this o have my two final exams for the MBA, wish me luck.

Thank you.

Lola

Lola, I'm so sorry about your recurrence. Cive has already given you excellent advice, and I just want to echo that how anyone of us does depends entirely on how we respond to tx, which is something no doctor can predict. I also want to point out that any survival stats you may find on-line do not include newer meds, such as the block buster drug, palbociclib (Ibrance), to which many women are having remarkable responses. Newer survival predictions definitely indicate an upward trend, especially for those with bone-only mets. And there are many new drugs, therapies, research stuff, in the pipelines, so plenty of reason to be optimistic, even if you do hear those dreaded words, "Stage IV."

As far as what tx you'll receive, my best guess is that it will probably be something systemic, such as an aromatase inhibitor & targeted therapy, or perhaps some sort of chemo. If your recurrence is in a bone, such as the sternum, surgery probably won't be helpful. R/T for advanced bc is more often used to treat especially painful lesions that do not respond sufficiently to oral meds.

Hope this answers a few of your questions! Good luck on your next appointment, as well as your MBA exams! Not great timing, you will get through it!

Please keep us updated.

Hugs, Deanna

could she ask her doctor  for a bone scan

well, the bone scan was 7 months ago. those are inexpensive, may be worth repeating to try and find the source of the pain.  

Katie, as others have suggested, bone scan is best idea for a mets hunt, as the last one was in May, that is a long time ago.

However, patients with breast cancer can also get other more benign things, like age related osteoarthritis of the spine, which might show on a plain Xray, or a non-cancerous fragility fracture even without trauma which would also show on a plain film. A good history and physical exam by a doc is also in order (e.g., to see if there is local pain at a bony site, is there neurologic involvement on exam going down the leg like pts can get with sciatica or lumbar disc disease, is she on meds that can cause back pain like AI etc). Sometimes it is also just lumbar muscle sprain, e.g., did she lift anything heavy like a child

Some docs can also run a bone alkaline phosphatase blood level to see if elevated, it reflects an increase in bone turnover ( from healing fractures, mets, or other metabolic causes, even vitamin D deficiency) if bone scan is not easily available quickly.

she should see the doc who has her whole record, and tell the whole story.

Hello,

I was diagnosed in June 2016 with IDC, Stage 1, Grade 2 with no spread to the lymph nodes or to the blood vessels. I had surgery in September 2016 and it's been a year and I have had good blood work since then every 6 months my doctor tests me. But a month ago I came down with a cold and had a cough and it's been 3 weeks since the cough started, but there are still remnants of it. It's the kind of cough you get when you go outside in cold air and breathe in, it's a catching cough I would describe it as. I also find myself short of breath when doing simple things like walking up the stairs. I was wondering if anyone here has had BC spread to the lungs and what your earliest symptoms were like? I made an appointment with my MO just for him to check it out for me, but in the meantime thought I would reach out to the BC community to see what early onset symptoms are in some people.

Thanks in advance,

Misty

Misty, sounds like a nasty bronchitis to me, but good to be checked! Best MJH

i had a 6mm lung nodule thst was followed for 2 years and said stable on last scan in oct but a 4mm was found new. I don't see mo until feb. Really don't want ct scan for every nodule that pops up. The area i live in is pretty polluted so i attribute it to that. Plus it's on the non cancer side in lung. Would bother bringing it up? I read my result in my online chart.

TNMTNGAL, I would be concerned about all the issues you've described. And yes, mets pain can feel like aching and burning, and if in the hips and back, usually worsens with activity and standing. MRIs are not always the best way to pick up mets, nor have I ever heard of torn muscles lighting up a PET scan, although perhaps something has been lost in the communication there. A bone scan is exactly what I would suggest. Also, depending on what they tell you after you have that, I would strongly consider taking your medical records and going for a complete evaluation at your closest NCI-designated cancer center. The fact that you've had as many fractures as you have had -- whether or not mets is involved, which we hope and pray is not the situation -- is also concerning and needs better answers than it seems like you've gotten so far and perhaps a bone building med, such as Xgeva (Prolia). Good luck on the bone scan, and please come back and let us know the results.

Rosabella, your onc will hopefully bring up any concerning changes in that lung nodule, but if he/she doesn't, you absolutely should. There are many reasons why a nodule may appear larger than it did the last time, including being scanned on different equipment, and/or just the angle and the way a radiologist sees it. In other words, imaging is not always as black & white as we may think it is, and tiny lung nodules are fairly common. Also, while there's no reason to suspect mets at this point, the fact that it's on your non-cancer side doesn't make a difference. Is your onc following your TMs? They're not always accurate for everyone, but it might be one more little assurance if they're in normal range.

Katie, I would strongly encourage your Mom to report her cough to her onc. It may be something as simple as bronchitis or a touch of pneumonia, but those both require tx and should not be ignored!

So sorry each of you is dealing with a worry during the holidays. Hopefully, all is well, but please follow up and keep us posted! Hugs, Deanna

Thank you so much for the reply! I actually had a bone scan today. They only scanned my lumbar spine and hips. I also had the lumbar MRI with an without contrast today. Hopefully I'll have some answers soon!

hello everybody, I am posting here because my finance's mother probably only has a day left with us. She was doing okay (gradual but accelerating decline, stage IV with metastases to her liver, bones, and brain, and she has started having severe, acute ascites) until yesterday, and has since entered a tailspin with an infection, completely altered and is now in the icu on a ventilator. I'm a paramedic, so I am familiar with the medicine, but what is about to happen scares the hell out of me and I need to do everything I can to help the family prepare. They haven't had any discussions or advance directives put together whatsoever, so this will be a frantic scramble for me while they are grieving to prepare for the next step.

After she passes, her husband will not be able to care for the one remaining child in the house, a 16 year old with mild autism. Dad has mental health problems and we're going to have to keep an eye on him for suicidal ideation, same for the teen. We're confident we can take over (he won't argue that we should take him) but we're not sure of all the nitty gritty required. We'll take over getting him to school and the doctor, fed, clothed and taken care of. But we are extremely poor (living in Seattle on basically minimum wage jobs,) and will need all the assistance we can get.

What resources are out there to help us, apart from the basics like food stamps and housing? Would talking to a custody lawyer be of any benefit for advice? Has anybody else dealt with this before? Her family is intensely disorganized, and I want to shoulder as much of this burden as possible for them, because despite being together for going on a decade, mom and younger sister never liked me, so my role in this will be one of pragmatism.

Thanks everyone for any advice.

Honeybadgers- would anyone qualify for SS disability? There are attorneys that help with this, and they take their fees from the settlement. if you SO's Mom is on SS, I think there might be a one time payout of $2000.00 for funeral expenses. Not sure, tho. Maybe check NAMI website for resources also. Best of luck with this sad and difficult situation. MJH

Thanks MJH. I am glad that the recurrence is localized and hoping that it remains like that. I start the trial of Ribociclib on Jan 9 (by then will have the biopsy results and know if it is the same as the first dx) and wondering if the RO will suggest targeted radiation.

Hugs

Lola

Honeybadger, I'm so sorry about your fiance's mother and other family concerns. I have no advice but wanted to suggest that you might want to repost your question in a couple of other forums here, where I believe you'll get more feedback. If you click on All Topics (to upper left), then scroll down, you will see discussion areas that I think might be more re;ated to the information you're after. Take a look at the sections headed "Family Matters" and "For Caregivers, Family, Friends & Supporters," and maybe even "Employment, Insurance & Other Financial Issues." You may find similar questions to yours already being discussed, and/or you may want to repost your question in one or more of those areas. The discussion boards here can be a bit confusing to navigate at first, but I have a feeling your questions will get more views and responses in those areas than they will on this page. Hugs, and prayers for your fiance's family.

Lolis, thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear your bone scan was clear, but the other soft tissue, possibly a lymph node still sounds a bit vague to be sure it's Stage IV. But even if it is, the fact that it's limited to one location is a very good thing. If it's considered ogliometastasis, it would have an excellent prognosis. It's something you might want to ask about. Here's a link with some info': https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC42026... Hugs, Deanna