Compression Fractures

After my scans in July the MO said I had a compression fracture at T11. He also said, and I quote, "but no one will operate on you", so I knew I'd have to tough it out. It hurt at the spot and outward, not exactly rib pain but similar. It was sharp on movement and achy when still. I actually think it broke when they made me lie directly on the metal table for that bone scan, at least that is the first time I felt it and even cried out "oh, my back!" . I asked for a pillow, as I'd had before, and they said no. Anyway, I added bone broth capsules to my bucket o' pills and I've been very careful how I move, especially any twisting. I've had a few more xgeva shots in the interim so I'm hoping they've helped too. I started doing these exercises with one-pound weights to help strengthen the muscles around the area. https://www.prevention.com/fitness/a20503369/5-gen... I've increased the reps but not the weight; I want it to be gentle.

I haven't had a scan since then, but I perceive it to be better. I rarely feel the pain unless I forget and turn over in bed too abruptly or lift or lower something with a jerk. I'm supposed to have another bone scan (and CT's) Wednesday but the blanking idiots have messed up the scheduling and insurance approval AGAIN. Every dang time. Then they get snippy with me when I complain. This time they've had since mid-September to get it arranged competently.

I thought so too, blainejennifer. I think it's because stage iv, mets to bones, liver, and in some configuration to lung or pleura (they've never really explained it well) and so on. Usually my MO is very tactful and positive. I think he thinks it will happen again in another one or more. So, it hurt like crazy, and does bother me some now but not as much. Knock wood, all my "innumerable" bone mets hurt less now, although I still know they are there, especially when I'm tired. Good luck with your situation. You asked about bending and walking. I could do those. It was uncomfortable but not ferocious. I felt better if I moved more.

p.s. I haven't asked for a good explanation for the lung involvement. That was my initial crisis, and since I can breathe now after a lot of procedures, I'm trying to "ignore" it. Haven't read anything too alarming on my reports.

Jennifer, in the last year or so, there was a sudden mention in my PET/CT of a "stable wedge fracture" (think rectangle suddenly turning into triangle with one side collapsed) still visible at L4 and then 3 months later, a mention that there were still two visible stable wedge fractures at L4 and L1. In both cases, it was described as if they had been there for a long time although these were the first mentions I have had of any spinal fractures. My MO has never mentioned any and I read my PET/CTs word for word and had never seen a mention before. I suspect it happened 4 years ago and that they were probably there at the time of my initial mets diagnosis. When I was diagnosed, I had very advanced, widespread bone mets everywhere with uncontrollable hypercalcemia and was in excruciating pain. However, since my first PET/CT 3 months into treatment, my bone mets have remained inactive for nearly 4 years now, so I don't think it happened later on. It took a good year, maybe longer, but everything healed up over time. I was not at all surprised to hear the fractures were at L4 and L1 as those were the two vertebrae that hurt more than the others in a scary way, like something was not right. Leaning forward to do my makeup over the bathroom sink for work or to do the dishes over the kitchen sink became impossible as it was too painful. However, I never knew they were fractured and they healed on their own and apparently a "stable wedge fracture" does not require surgery in most if not all cases. I do wonder whether it is turning me into a hunchback. Not sure which side of the vertebrae collapsed with these two, whether it is the inside of vertebrae or outside - is it turning me into a hunchback or arching my back out in an odd way? To this day, I do have trouble sitting in many chairs as I feel like they don't line up with my back and are positioned too far forward as if I am leaning forward when I should be sitting upright. I don't know if that issue is from these fractures or from my extensive liver mets which may be pushing out my rib cage in my back and misaligning the contour of my back. I have some numbness along the right side of my middle spine, behind my liver, that I thought for years was from the bone mets but it turns out it is my liver mets pressing on a nerve. Ahh, the mysteries and surprises of Stage 4 . . . . .