So - the oncologist telephoned again on Friday as promised. He seemed to have no recollection of the previous week's conversation in which he let slip that I also have bone metastases and have had for months. I asked him again "WHICH" bones and this time - he told me he DOESN'T KNOW! The report just says "multiple". I had to ask him about the liver mets - fortunately they are stable and the bone mets are showing more density but still I want to know WHICH bones. As I have just posted in my "rant" thread:
."....for around a year I have had - not a pain, exactly, but an awareness of a sensation on my right hand side, at the top end of the ribcage. It's mildly uncomfortable but nothing to take pain relief over. I have been assuming it was either my liver or the gall bladder (I have some right old fun and games with indigestion, which makes me wonder gall bladder? But everything I have heard suggests that gall bladder pain is crippling and it's definitely not that.) I've kept telling myself that "if it IS the liver, it's not agony and each CT scan shows either shrinkage or stability, so stop worrying!"
Now I'm wondering - is it my rib cage itself? So many other little aches and pains that I had put down to other causes = are they really bad posture or ye olde hockey stick shin incident rearing its arthritic head again? I can see that at this rate, I'm going to get the Denusomab injections and see which bones feel better. I see no other way of finding out which bones it's in! So I know exactly what you mean!
I thought I had it all sorted out in my head what was where and what caused what pains. Then, if I got a headache or stomach ache or anything else ache, I could tell myself to STFU - the cancer is nowhere near there and besides, red wine always = headache. But now I have no idea where it is and, frankly, no confidence in the doctors. "
Anyway - he seemed to have forgotten that he had offered me the Denusomab injections. I reminded him and he said that, pending dentist all-clear, I can sign the consent form at my next CT scan in three months time, then start them. Presumably I should just STFU about random bone pains in the meantime, eh?
At least I'm no stranger to pain. It took me 18 months to convince the GP that this was more than just frozen shoulder or incorrect muscle usage - the chemo cured a lot of that pain, proving my long-held conviction that the pain was caused by a return of the cancer I had had 15 or so years previously. Yeah, I'm bitter.
