Dear Elliedog,
Sorry to hear of your ups and downs lately. If it is any consolation I often similar feelings to yourself. I have definite bone Mets one which fractured my femur and three smaller ones. I think the problem with bone scans is they aren't always as clear as we would like. To begin with only my fracture showed up and the micro ones only came to light on a CT scan because they were a few mm each. Then once I had the taxotere I had another bone scan which lit up like a Christmas tree. This time I was told it was that this was a sign of them becoming sclerotic which was a good thing. It is just so hard to get your head around all this. The bone scan also showed some degenerative changes in shoulders and knees. I think this is why you can only be stable with bone Mets. I also had an xray of my hips in March 2013 which showed only minor degenerative changes. Lo and behold less than 2 months later my hip fractured. I was then told my organs were clear from the first CT scan only to read from the 2nd CT scan that the 'liver met' had remained unchanged. Needless to say I went into complete meltdown at this. I have been assured that it isn't a met. I also discovered I had a 4cm ovarian cyst plus possibly a cyst on my thyroid. I was also diagnosed with a malignant melanoma in with on my left forearm. I am sorry to ramble on but I think it so hard for us as we have to trust the people who treat us but it is obvious every result or scan is open to interpretation. I feel like I want to believe everyone but it is extremely hard. Like you I am hopefully maintaining on herceptin, perjeta and tamoxifen plus denosumab. I think what I am trying to say is we all want to know for definite what we have or don't have and it doesn't always seem possible to get definite answers. We are then left with uncertainty which makes me anxious and it is quite exhausting. Sometimes I literally have to get to bed early as sleep seems to be my only escape from all the worry.
I am sorry I am not sure this is all very helpful but I just wanted to empathise with you and to say you are not alone in this.
About your rib fracture could it have been caused when you had your mastectomy? I think you can fracture your ribs by coughing violently. I suppose it can't really be biospied as it is healed. This could give you some peace of mind but I think it can be painful.
Anyway I wish you all the best. I wonder as we are both coming up a year whether this is adding to our anxieties. In some respects it all seems like yesterday but also a whole world away.
Pumpkinsue XX
