Hi
just wanted to ask about hotspots, had a bone scan a year ago and was told despite me having twinges that it was all clear, had a bone scan couple of weeks ago and was told last week i have 4 hotspots, ribs, back and hip, dont really know much about this, had bc 3 half years ago and thought was ticking over nicely taking my tamoxifen and montly zoladex injections now just feel knocked off my feet by this news, going on holiday for 2 weeks and will have my MRI and CT scan when I get back, can any one advise, how fast do the hotspots develop? if i get treatment will they stay the same size or shrink? am now getting twinges everywhere, sure its just tension I hope! feel quite well in myself although am very tired but no change there! just hope it hasnt gone into any of the organs, what are the symptoms for that??
feel so sick and worried, hate this cr*ppy disease!
any info would be appreciated
thanks v much
Caz xxxxxx
You really need a doc to answer this but if it helps :
My wife had hot spots, they are where the chemical they injected into you attached themselves to the small areas of cancer. Where you have them in your skeleton is much the same as my wife but she had many more. If they are only in the bones at present then they can be shrunk with chemotherapy and or radiatioon if you eed it.
My wife showed no symptoms of organ contamination but it had spread to liver and lungs, again Chemo got rid of the lung spread and the other chemo has held the liver back for over 2 years now.
Sounds to me like you have caught this early.
When you see your onc next, prepare a very long list of questions, I believe there is a help booklet out there with questions to ask.
Take care
Terry
Hi Caz,
I was in a similar position to you 6 years ago - just dx with bone mets and about to go off on 2 week holiday!!! It is difficult to know, and I suspect for each person different. My bone mets when found was very extensive yet I had had no pain or warning. My treatment didnt start straight away. By the time I had my holiday, and then it was Christmas/New Year - treatment started in the January. I had a further bone scan 8 wks later and the bone mets had continued to spread further. So it was obviously happening fairly rapidly. The good news is that the next scan showed the treatment had arrested it and I have been quite well over these past 6 years. Of course I have to be careful. But yours is not so bad by the sound of it. I was put on pamidronate, one of the bisphosphonate drugs every 3 weeks and have stayed on it every since. It has relatively few side effects. I hope when you return the rest of your scans are clear and that the treatment is successful in controlling it. If you want to contact me you can pm me on bcpals.
dawnhc
thanks Terry and Dawn for getting back to me so quickly very kind of you both, just had good news my scans are more or less when i get back from my hols and then only a week to wait for results so just worrying for a short time!!
am gonna try and put it to the back of my mind and enjoy??! my holiday, I will have a drink for you!!
XX
Hi Caz
Sounds like the best thing you can do, go and enjoy yourself. As things have shown up after 3 and a half years I’m sure another week or 2 won’t hurt and I bet they would have told you not to go if there was any great concern. I was dx with bone mets in April this year. No symptoms other than an occasional ache where I now know my hip mets are. I chose to have chemo as a ‘mopping’ up exercise for any other microscopic BC cells lurking and also to shrink the lump that had recurred in my breast. I’ve just finished 6 x FEC with 3 weekly Pamidronate at the same time. I’ve had scans during and after chemo which have shown good results and am about to start hormone therapy with continued Pamidronate. I am very Er and PR +ve, HER2 -ve. I hope your scans show no other problems and a treatment plan is sorted out quickly for you - I was told not to rush my decisions and nothing would change in the meantime. Once I knew what was going to happen I did feel better to cope with things.
Read up on here, as I did, about bone secondaries - it really inspired me and gave me hope, also it gives you a whole load of questions to ask when you see your Onc.
Take care and have a good holiday, deal with the cr@p when you get back 
Nicky x