I’ve posted before - my Mum has BC in liver & lungs & has a “hotspot” in a rib.
About 2 months ago, she woke up one morning with a really swollen painful knee that hurt at the slightest touch. Since then, she has seen her GP several times & has seen an onc to discuss her current medication. She has had an x-ray that shows wear & tear damage (which we expected to see because her other knee was replaced 3 years ago). The onc (who is not her regular onc) says it is possibly something to do with her “condition” i.e. a sign of bone mets in the knee & is sending her for blood tests & a CT scan.
She has been given pain relief patches & has been taking steroid tablets & co-codamol - none of which has done any good at all.
Has anybody ever experienced anything like this & if so, was it bone mets & if so, can anything be done about it? The constant pain has transformed her from somebody who was stoical about her condition & carried on with life as best as she could to a little old crippled lady with a quavery voice who is losing interest in life, even though she has minimal progression in the liver & lungs.
I dont know how helpful I can be here. I dont have any experience of what you describe but I know the CT scan should show more clearly what the problemn is with your mum’s knee.
You dont say how old your mum is and what is happening could be an arthritic condition. It sounds very similar to what happens to my mum when her arthritis flares up. On occassion she has pain which is very debilitating, ,much worse that anything I have had with bone mets. She has had knee replacement surgery on one knee which has cured the problem in that leg.
My mum got some relief from using a tens machine but you really need to know whether this is part of her condition or wear and tear. Co-codomol didnt help me at all and I switched to diclofenac but they are a milder painkiller and it sounds like your mum needs something stronger.
Sorry I am not much help but someone else may see this now it is back at the top.
Thanks for your response. Yes, it’s possible that arthritis could be involved as mum had her other knee replaced 3 years ago due to severe osteo arthritis.
She says that the pain is “different” from arthritis though & rather than feeling it in the bone, she feels it in the soft tissues surrounding her knee, which is swollen & does feel hotter than the surrounding areas. She feels pain if her knee is touched even lightly.
She has been given painkilling patches which don’t work, steroid tablets, which also don’t work & uses a tens machine which gives very mild relief. They wouldn’t let her have diclofenac because apparently it interacts badly with bone phos.
All the medical people have been very “kind” but none of them have any answers or solutions as yet. Pain relief is the immediate requirement but nothing seems to work.
It’s so awful for her to be reduced to being so crippled within a matter of weeks & to be in constant pain.
If anybody has any ideas or experience, please let me know.