Secondary breast cancer in the bones

Hi Gabes,

I'm not Linda so I'm sorry to barge in but I think I can add something here. I'm also sorry that it's not encouraging.

I had breast cancer a long time ago. 13 years after, I started to get a really bad pain in my shoulder and upper arm. It felt like my arm was too heavy for the joint and I would walk around with it in the typical sling position. I got fake itches in it, fake electric shocks and occasionally,. fake scalpel slices down the bicep. It was agony - couldn't even brush my hair.

My GP claimed frozen shoulder, advised pain relief and self-physio and sent me on my way. On about the fourth visit, she referred me to the breast surgeon to see if it was related. The surgeon cancelled my appointment and refused to see me based on the fact that frozen shoulder was unlikely to be anything to do with the surgery. 

Many visits later and two dismissals of the lump in my neck later. they sent me for a routine blood test to see if I could keep taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories. When I returned to the surgery for the results, the GP finally believed something was wrong - by now I had a lump in my neck and a lump in my armpit and you could see that my scar area and area around my collarbone was badly swollen. My finger and thumb were (and still are) numb. 

She sent me off on the two week pathway to hospital and after an ultrasound, a biopsy of my armpit and a CT scan, I was diagnosed with secondaries in the bones and liver. After my first chemo, the pain had almost gone so although I can't get anyone to admit it, I know that the cancer had been causing the pain.

Since then I have learned of and met several women who muddled along with "frozen shoulder" or "trapped nerve" before being taken seriously so if I were you, I would demand to be referred back to your oncologist. Don't be fobbed off like I was. Tell them that you've been talking to people on the internet with the exact same symptoms and that theirs turned out to be serious. 

Hopefully, yours is nothing. Hopefully it's a frozen shoulder or stiff muscles or anything but cancer but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Hope all goes well. 

Hello MooCoo, thank you so much for your so detailed and profound information. It is so important that we all share such information as it is easier for choosing the right pathway when things  happens. Im so sorry to hear all your pathway via GP was such a disaster, it is really shameful for our health professional’s routines. I have already contacted my onco team this morning and got the visit scheduled early January. And besides my case which I reported to the onco’s secretary will be passed  to the consultant and I will be informed next week  if they think my appointment needs to be brought forward or can wait. I do thank you so much for replying to me. Although I still hope that it is not secondary cancer in my arm but the worry never goes away in us! I hope you getting better and you will enjoy good Xmas time. Thanks again

xxx

Gabes 

Dear Gates,

Thank you so much for your kind  words .

I hope you are able to get  seen to swiftly. It is difficult and I hope you get relief  from the pain soon. And I hope that it is not secondary cancer. I wish you the best of luck.

Have a  beautiful and blessed  Christmas. 

Xxx