Dash that Ash

Oh no!! I really hope you find ways to keep comfortable in the meantime and that the painkillers are going some way to helping with that...blinking ash cloud...one of my colleagues is stuck to and I have to cover her hours which I really didnt want. Feel like I havent had a rest for ages!!

Love Chrissi xx

Dear Kate, hope you don't mind me asking but I've been reading your blogs and am sorry about your back.  I too have started to get really bad back pain in my lower right side and its making me really miserable - I live on painkillers - co-codamol, tramadol, sleeping tabs as I can't sleep with it.  I have seen the onco. but he said he could find nothing wrong and my bone scan done in Oct. 09 was okay.  I feel like such a fake as no-one seems to know why I am having such severe back pain.  I didn't have chemo - FEC as I caught infection after 1st dose and just had radio/herceptin for year which ended in Mar.09.  How did your back pain start?  Was it long after surgery/treatment?  Were you able to get answers straightaway?  My GP said I have arthritis but its only mild!? I feel such a wuss if I can't even bear mild arthritis.  Are your injections steroids and will you have to have them regularly?  I do wish you peace, its so frustrating after going through so much to be left with pain.  Take care, god bless. Ann

Oh Flipping Heck Kate!

Tell him to start walking - he'd be back in plenty of time for next week!

Jo

Oh Kate  I am sorry to hear that, he better get back soon or The Bird will find him for you....Take care love Carol x

In answer to nutcracker:

I am two years post treatment for breast cancer. The pain started last November and was initially a pain radiating from my bum down to my knee. GP prescribed Co-Codamol and then said there was little else she could do but refer me for physio. The pain gradually got worse and I got to see a physio in January.  When I went for my check-up at The Royal Marsden it was the oncologist who really took me seriously and ordered a bone scan. That scan showed 'hot spots' which can be indicative of mets, so he then sent me for x-rays and an MRI. Whilst thankfully, the results of those showed  no evidence of cancer mets, it did give a clearer picture of exactly where my spine was collapsing/crumbling etc. I went back to the GP for stronger meds and she prescribed Co-dydramol. Even they didn't touch the pain so I went back for something else and was prescribed Tramadol. By the time I got to see the back specialist even these weren't doing much so he doubled the dosage so I am now on the maximum. The steroid injections (which will be done using a intravenous sedation) are to deliver steroids directly into the places where the damage is and hopefully calm down the inflammation causing the pain. I also take the drug Naproxen (an anti-inflammatory).

The specialist did warn me this might not work, and if it does work then it might wear off in anything from three months to two years. So then the injections will be repeated.

I don't think I would have got this far without the intervention of the oncologist. You said your bone scan was okay but there are different types of bone scan - bone density which checks how strong your bones are, and then there is a proper bone scan which gives more information.

If you are taking tramadol and co-codamol and are still in such pain then please do go back to your GP. Apparently it is extremely difficult to diagnose 'backs' and also treat them.

If you want to ask anything else I'll be pleased to share any information.

Best wishes,

KateG