Hi All, I am absolutely petrified, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last January 24. I had a DMX and on Tamoxifen. I have been told im at very low risk of reoccurrence. Grade 2 one node ER/PR positive and HER2 Neg.
However I have very tender bone pain in my ribs and has been like it for a month. Hospital are concerned and having a full body bone scan on Wednesday.
I am so scared its in my bones but how can it be when they have reassured me over and over again I am at low risk of it coming back.
Does this happen, can you get secondary breast cancer so quickly after primary or could it have been there all along.
My mind is in a complete meltdown not sure I can cope with all this again.
Could it be because of the injection you take to produce white blood cells to fight infection? I have only taken it a day ago but told it is a side effect.
Panic ye not. My history is very similar to yours. DMX July 2022 (a different bc in each), full axillary clearance (my choice, as being more enlightening than zapping blindly with radiation) after only one node found to be involved (because it was extra-capsular - broken through node wall). Grade 2 PR 8/8 ER 8/8 HER2 neg (so, strongly hormone receptive) but not very aggressive. Left chest wall radiotherapy and prescribed AI Anastrozole (which I tried for 10 months but decided no more !)
Once the surgery and radio was a few months behind me, I started getting a very sore rib (one specifically), always most painful when turning in bed and rising in the morning. It was initially dismissed as ‘probably’ (!) being a radio side effect but, like you, I was imagining the worst and needed my mind putting at rest. I was granted a Nuclear Medicine (radioactive material injection first) full body bone scan in 2024. I was told nothing concerning found (but to be honest, the image was VERY VERY basic, imho).
I have been petitioning my hospital ever since for an MRI on that area, because with no breasts any more, mammos are not an option (not that they, or ultrasounds, ever showed up what was going on inside; it was my own intuition and subsequently the vacuum biopsy that eventually found the linear, discrete, invasive lobular cancer activity ). I have been turned down for an MRI 4 times so far. (The reasons I want an MRI is for a more targeted look around that area, and to limit the amount of radiation I was subjecting my body to over the years.)
Having reported a phase of the pain seeming to spread around that rib to the sternum and spine, on Monday (tomorrow) I go for another NM full body bone scan, as a compromise to get me off their back, I suspect. I am assuming it will find nothing further, and yet the background fear will always be there. I do go into it with some trepidation.
So, hold tight kat-jack. for both of us !
Breast cancer do anything unfortunately. However, in saying that, this is very likely to be nothing related to cancer but everything having to do with surgery and the trauma because of it. Hold tight and may result come quickly that ease your mind.
I had breast surgery December 2021 and months later had sore ribs on right side, same side as surgery. I originally put it down to pain after defrosting freezer, sounds silly but I had been using right hand to try and scrape ice and a physio told me that an unusual continuous movement could have caused the pain. I left it hoping pain would go away but it was still there 2 months later so I went to see my GP who referred me for an urgent Bone Nuclear Scan. Result came back that there was something showing on the scan (forgotten the word they used) which they could not explain. I was then referred to rapid breast clinic where every test that is needed is done and results given on same day. Thankfully this was just scarring after the operation and the Doctor that I saw said that he sees this about once or twice every year. It just happened that I had pain in my ribs but there was no cancer. Pain lasted 3 months. Hope you get similar result too.
I’ve had a few nuclear bone scans due to a hotspot in my hip following a breast cancer diagnosis with one node involved, similar diagnosis er/pr+ her2 low grade 1. I also had rib pain and a CT confirmed radiation damage, it is more likely to be this than a recurrence. Good luck xx
). I have been turned down for an MRI 4 times so far. (The reasons I want an MRI is for a more targeted look around that area, and to limit the amount of radiation I was subjecting my body to over the years.)
for both of us !