Bone Pain

Hello Slartiblatfast.

Welcome to the forum and glad that you have reached out to us. Spill the beans on the name.

It sounds as if you are experiencing bone or muscle pain associated with the chemo, or a gut reaction. It is important to tell the team of these symptoms as they can give you supportive drugs with your next round of therapy such as antihistamines which greatly reduce the side effects. For now try a cold compress on the area such as a bag of peas and hold it there for 20 minutes. If that doesn't work switch to heat -a hot water bottle. If it is a gut reaction then your medical team can supply drugs to help with this. The initial effects of chemotherapy such as bone and muscle pain wear off after a few days. If it is a gut issue then this will quickly resolve itself with the anti nausea drugs. The medical team will also advise on painkillers and dosage. Keep an eye on your temperature as you are more vulnerable to infection at the moment.

I hope this helps and please come back with any other questions, no matter how large or small. We are a friendly group who hope they can give back to others the help and experience they themselves have received in the past from the forum.

Thanks for the info.
I will try the cold/heat.

I don't think it's a gut reaction as its on the side of my chest.  I don't have any nausea so I stopped taking the anti nausea tablets as all they did was give me hiccups.  Ironic really as they are apparently used to also stop hiccups

I'm waiting for a call back from the GP this afternoon to see if there is any other pain relief other than codeine they can prescribe.
The emergency service is sending my details to the oncology team so we will see where that leads
Apparently the consultant I saw is on holiday at the moment so hopefully someone else will pick up the issue

As for the name, I was in a rush and the forum said not to use my real name and 'Slartibartfast' was the first name that came into my head.  It's a character from the 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' - one of my favourite books

Thanks for the update. It looks as if you have things under control with the medical team and I hope they sort your issue out soon. Pain is very debilitating. I am assuming that you have not had a fall recently? With regards to pain management the medical team will recommend certain painkillers and dosage which will hopefully give you the immediate relief you need but make sure that they know of the effects that codeine has on you when you take it for a few days as many of the stronger painkillers can also include codeine. Did you have a nuclear bone scan before being put on HT because this should have shown up any mets in the ribs? If your pain becomes chronic, rather than acute then there are complementary therapies like physiotherapy that may help as well as pain management courses which teach relaxation and cognitive methods to use along with balancing the drug regime. Your priority at the moment is to sort out your acute pain. I hope that this reassures you but my husband had a similar problems on days 5 and 6 of his first chemotherapy cycle with severe left side pain. Stronger painkillers resolved it. He does not have bone metastases but had a fall and had broken a rib on that side many months previously. The way it was described to us was that the chemotherapy attacks the bone marrow and can cause a flare in the first session where there is a weakness resulting in extra pain. He has now had 4 sessions of chemotherapy and because the oncologist has adjusted his docetxel dose and given supportive drugs with it then he has not had an issue since. You are doing right by reporting things to the medical team. From tomorrow your white bloods may drop so be extra careful about any cuts or grazes and take precautions as you did during the COVID pandemic. If you start feeling unwell, have a temperature high or low then report it immediately. Neither you nor the medical team know how you are going to react to the chemotherapy during the first cycle. They have the medication to sort you out and mitigate effects in future cycles.

I am sure that those who have bone metastases will help you with their stories. My husband also has advanced metastatic PCa which affects his lymph nodes. I have put his journey on the profile which you can read if you want by clicking on the chair. His initial prognosis was poor but here we are 3 years later still enjoying life.

I had a bone scan and was allowed to take a photo of it when I saw the consultant
The areas on the bone scan don't give me any pain but as the pain is on the inside of the rib it didn't show on the scan
I have heard back from the Emergency team and they have booked me into the local hospital tomorrow morning for an Xray so we will have a better idea then.
I haven't had any recent injury to the rib so I'm at a loss.

Hopefully tomorrow will throw a bit of light on it.

I can live with the side effects (so far) but this is very painful. 

hey 

i had something similar after my 1st round of chemo .

5 days after my chemo it felt like i was being punched in my kidneys it was taking my breath away .

i was away in the lakes and had to come home . 

same thing couldn't get comfortable ended up in a+e where they gave me painkillers which helped a bit .

within 2 days it stopped and i never had it again nobody could explain what happened .

i have bone mets too 

I’m sorry you had to go through that but in another way I’m glad you did as it means I’m not going mad 

hopefully I will know more tomorrow 

Just seen on the Prostate Cancer UK forum that someone else is reporting excruciating pain 5 days into the first docetaxel cycle. You are definitely not going mad! Hope you feel better soon.

Got to the hospital at 8:30 this morning
Appointment at 9 so went for a coffee in the restaurant and resisted the smell of a full English breakfast

Have had assessment, blood tests, a chest Xray and a CT scan

So far nothing out of the ordinary apart from the pain

They are sending the results to the oncology team and I have to wait to hear back

Got home at 3pm

Can’t fault the NHS in the way I was looked after but I’m bleeding knackered now

Have a well earned rest. 

Glad to hear that all the tests were fine. Did you actually see your blood report? I have been putting my microbiologist hat on and done a little digging. In summary very sharp and persistent pain in the back, side or abdomen can occur, usually after the first session of taxanes e.g. docetaxel, between days 3 to 7 as a result of the body trying to get rid of the killed cancer cells, a process called lysis. The dead cells need to be flushed out of the body by the kidneys and the gut. The symptoms seem to be worse in those with metastatic cancers because they have the greatest number of cancer cells to get rid of. When the body has difficulty getting rid of these cells at a fast enough rate then it manifests as acute pain or flare until they have gone. It is often associated with a drop in white blood count - these are the cells which fight infection or foreign bodies hence the question about the blood report. Some oncologists tell you to take filgrastim routinely to increase white bloods after each chemotherapy session whereas others wait to see what the first CBC says as not everyone has the white blood drop. This flare is different to the muscle and bone aches and pains some experience with chemotherapy in that it is far more intense and usually associated with the side, back and stomach. There is a warning that you should contact your onco team, which you have effectively done. If this is the explanation then the positive from it is that the chemotherapy is working at killing the cancer. 

The flare does not usually occur with subsequent chemotherapy cycles because supportive medication and/or docetaxel adjustment is made.

Thanks for the info
The symptoms certainly seems to fit your explanation so it's a bit of reassurance for me.
The chief nurse went over the blood results with me and said that the white blood cell count was OK but unless she has access to the previous readings she wouldn't know if it had dropped.
I'm surprised that they hadn't thought of this, when they cal back I will mention it.

I'm not from a biology background but I like to learn and treat every day as a school day.
What I am though from 49 years of martial arts is a fighter and I intend to beat this into submission so it can be controlled.
I haven't finished living yet so I'm not going to let this beat me.

Thanks again for the info