Cancer/Pain Update

For those of you not on social media, I apologize for not updating you; I had my scans on December 15 and everything appeared stable - nothing had grown and there was no new cancer. We were so thankful and relieved! It was wonderful to head into Christmas with good news. It felt like our own Christmas miracle.

But at the beginning of December, I had also begun having some new pain. It was in my shoulder blade, so my physical therapist and I worked on it. We did massage, dry needling, and electrical shocks with a TENS unit. Nothing helped. I told my oncologist about it at my appointment after my scans, but the location of the pain and a clean CT scan led us to conclude that it must be muscular and to keep working with PT and my physiatrist (a physical medicine and rehab doctor).

I went to my physical medicine doctor to get trigger point injections to try to get some pain relief before driving to Chattanooga for Christmas with Kevin's family. Such a long trip was already going to be difficult, and I knew I couldn't go into the trip already in pain. But, while the trigger point injections have worked in the past on other areas of pain, this time they did nothing. I added on lidocaine patches and tried Voltaren cream to no avail.

The pain was starting to affect my sleep, too. All of my usual sleep positions caused pain, and I could only find relief lying flat on my back. I couldn't take Tylenol because of the cancer in my liver, and ibuprofen interfered with other medications I take. By the time we got back from Christmas, I was fully miserable.

Back I went to my physiatrist for a previously scheduled appointment. By this point, I had lived with the pain for over a month and had learned more about it - the heating pad was the only thing that brought any kind of relief. Movement didn't seem to make it better or worse. It got progressively worse as the day went by and was worst at bedtime. It was a deep ache, not the burning pain of muscle or the sharp pain of nerves. The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like the back pain I had had in 2015 that led to the discovery of cancer in my spine.

I began to think something had shifted in my spine and was pinching and causing new pain. When the physiatrist suggested an MRI to better see what was going on, I quickly agreed, despite how nervous MRIs make me. But when they did the MRI, they used a special camera that cupped my shoulder but didn't actually go all the way to my spine or even to the edge of my shoulder blade. I felt slightly panicked. I had really wanted to see what was happening with my spine. Or at the very least, my shoulder blade. I was sure the orders had been lost in translation. And now I'd probably need to do another MRI to image the right area. 

So I spent the entire MRI praying that, miraculously, they would be able to see what was causing my pain. Even still, when my physiatrist called the next day, I was sure she was going to say they needed to do more imaging because everything the MRI had captured looked fine. I'm embarrassed to say that I was shocked when she said the MRI had shown what was wrong. What little faith I had in an answered prayer!

Unfortunately, what the MRI had seen was cancer - in my shoulder blade, collarbone, and the top of my upper arm bone, along with some muscle tears. My oncologist would be following up with me. I had a million questions. What did this new cancer mean? WAS it new? Had it been on my December CT scan but no one noticed it? I don't think breast cancer even spreads to the shoulder blade. Was it another kind of cancer? Would I need a biopsy? Would I need to switch treatments? 

Honestly, it's been almost two weeks since getting the results, and I still have most of these same questions. What I do know is that they believe it's still breast cancer that's spread, not another kind of cancer. But they don't seem to think it's enough of a spread to change treatments. In re-examining December's CT scan, it's really hard to see if these spots were there then or not. The CT just doesn't seem like the right kind of imaging for the shoulder blade. I'll know more after seeing my oncologist tomorrow. 

The positive news is that they think radiation can help with my pain. Which is good, because I've been in so much pain I've had to go on prescription painkillers. I felt okay on the first kind they prescribed, but the pain started winning the battle, despite all my attempts at distraction therapy. On Thursday, they switched me to a stronger drug that helps the pain really well, but leaves me out of it most of the time. Radiation can't come quickly enough! 

Unfortunately, UVA seems to be super busy right now and I couldn't get on the schedule until Feb. 1. Which means pain until then and pain for at least two weeks after the treatment, until the effects (hopefully) kick in. Obviously, I greatly appreciate your prayers! And other ideas for distraction that don't require a lot of cognitive awareness. LOL. 

This is life lately. Thanks for being there in it with me.