Possible Bone Mets——how do I prepare?

inflammation and degeneration are terms used in arthritis. I would assume that until proven otherwise. I am glad they are following up to give you more information. Ask for pros/cops of CT vs MRI...... which would give more info. Do keep us posted.

She hasn't posted since January 10th.

NotBrokenJustBent, a dexa scan would not show mets, because it only looks at a handful of places in your body and the upper arm is not one of them.

I think it would be worth setting up an appointment with your MO. While there could be lots of non-cancer reasons for the pain, including degenerative disease (especially if you are/were on anti-hormonal treatment), seems like your symptoms are sufficiently serious to warrant a checkup - you've had this pain for 6 weeks, it's bad enough to wake you from sleep and it's painful to the touch. An X-ray would be easy to get and pretty sensitive to pick-up a bone lesion, especially in the arm, where there aren't a lot of overlapping structures that make X-rays more difficult to read.

I'm hoping it's nothing serious. Best of luck, and let us know how it goes.

Greeneyes, Tired of being tired. The story of my life. I wish I had suggestions. I don't; but I can relate! I hope you get relief from the pain.

Notbroken, Dexa generally would NOT show mets, and it also just scans a couple of very small areas.

Hi ladies, just needing to vent a bit. I've been having a slight pain on my spine, right about where the cervical and thoracic come together. It started right before Christmas, I'd taken a spin class and then went bowling and the next morning I was vacuuming and I got this sharp pain that about took my breath away, I took Ibuprofen and by the next day it was a bit better hurting more when I reached up or turned a certain way. Gradually it diminished, now it's very vague but I notice it more at night, when I vacuum or after I bowl. I went to my MO and she ordered a nuclear bone scan which I had last Thursday. She called me Friday afternoon and told me the scan was inconclusive stating it lit up exactly where I'm having the pain and the radiologist could not say for certain that it was arthritis or cancer. So they are supposed to call me tomorrow to schedule an MRI and from there a biopsy if needed. UGH, trying hard to just put it way in the back of my mind but it's hard. Hoping by some miracle I will have an answer in the next couple of days.

GreenEyes, as someone who has 'moderate' spinal arthritis up and down my spine, I can tell you that just because it's "not that bad" doesn't mean that it can't be extremely painful. Mine tends to come and go... sometimes it's neck/shoulders/upper back, sometimes it's lower back, and a new one a couple of years ago was mid-back. That one led me to the doctor for a bunch of x-rays, which confirmed that my previously mild arthritis had advanced to moderate and to one extent or another was affecting pretty much ever vertebrae in my back.

So far I've been lucky in that each area acts up one at a time - I'll have pain related to one area of my spine for weeks or months, and then it will ease off. Then another area will act up. Depending on which area is acting up, I get all sorts of other radiating aches and pains and numbness and tingling, down to my toes and my fingers. One thing that is lucky (relatively speaking, of course) is that most often my pain is upper back. That affects my arms and hands but I'm used to it and it's the easiest for me to self-treat with exercise. Mid-back is scary because the radiating pain can feel like chest pains - when that affected me for a few months a couple of years ago, I felt so awful and after a while became physically exhausted. That said, for me, lower back is by far the most painful and debilitating so if that is where you have the issue, I can imagine how much it hurts.

Arthritis is not fun, but it's better than mets. That's the good news in your report.