› Forums › General Melanoma Community › What does bone tumor pain feel like?
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RobertReny.
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- May 5, 2015 at 6:47 pm
What does bone tumor pain actually feel like?
I have a history of melanoma with 1 recurrence in the past 2 years and have been having increasing pain in my right hipbone/pelvic area, sometimes it radiates slightly into my back, sometimes a bit down my right leg, but mostly it seems to be right at the hipbone. It has been gradually increasing for a few months but has just gotten really bad the last few weeks, so that it went from occasional and more of a dull ache, to constant and sometimes almost unbearable, though it will reduce back down to a dull ache, but now it is always there.
I am going in for a CT scan but I can't seem to find much on what bone pain from tumors might feel like. Melanoma lesions can be small, so I am not sure how aggressive I should be in following this up if the CT doesn't show anything. Should I ask for a PET CT?
Does this sound anything like bone tumor pain to any of you?
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- May 5, 2015 at 7:13 pm
Yes and no. I have around 30 tumors that started in bones. I still haven't figured it out yet. For example for several weeks I would have a really bad sharp pain on my left rib the size of a quarter . It would come and go and really hurt. But the regular scheduled pet showed all those tumors were shrinking. Another I was just walking fine and all the sudden at the snap of your fingers I suddenly have massive pain about the size of a dime in my left lower leg. I could hardly make it back home. This continued off and on for weeks. Finally got radiation it was a tiny tumor he called it. The marks they had on my leg from their ct scan was the exact spot of pain. In the beginning I would have the worst back pains you can imagine. For about 2 months they would come and go but never really leave. I think now that was the bone tumors happening although the docs were misdiagnosing as muscle pains.
Dunno if that helped .
Artie
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- May 5, 2015 at 7:13 pm
Yes and no. I have around 30 tumors that started in bones. I still haven't figured it out yet. For example for several weeks I would have a really bad sharp pain on my left rib the size of a quarter . It would come and go and really hurt. But the regular scheduled pet showed all those tumors were shrinking. Another I was just walking fine and all the sudden at the snap of your fingers I suddenly have massive pain about the size of a dime in my left lower leg. I could hardly make it back home. This continued off and on for weeks. Finally got radiation it was a tiny tumor he called it. The marks they had on my leg from their ct scan was the exact spot of pain. In the beginning I would have the worst back pains you can imagine. For about 2 months they would come and go but never really leave. I think now that was the bone tumors happening although the docs were misdiagnosing as muscle pains.
Dunno if that helped .
Artie
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- May 5, 2015 at 7:13 pm
Yes and no. I have around 30 tumors that started in bones. I still haven't figured it out yet. For example for several weeks I would have a really bad sharp pain on my left rib the size of a quarter . It would come and go and really hurt. But the regular scheduled pet showed all those tumors were shrinking. Another I was just walking fine and all the sudden at the snap of your fingers I suddenly have massive pain about the size of a dime in my left lower leg. I could hardly make it back home. This continued off and on for weeks. Finally got radiation it was a tiny tumor he called it. The marks they had on my leg from their ct scan was the exact spot of pain. In the beginning I would have the worst back pains you can imagine. For about 2 months they would come and go but never really leave. I think now that was the bone tumors happening although the docs were misdiagnosing as muscle pains.
Dunno if that helped .
Artie
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- May 5, 2015 at 7:48 pm
Hi,I've had a number of bone tumors (not as many as Artie!) in three of the four "long bones" of my legs and also in my left shoulder. Some have been symptomatic, some not. My shoulder had 10% bone mass where the tumor was and it was only a dull ache. I had two small tumors in my left tibia that had dull pain when I went for my first run after a treatment in 2011 — sort of like shin splints, but I'd never had shin splints before, and I knew it wasn't muscular. I mentioned it to my doctors and they had me do an x-ray and then MRI and found two small spots. Others that were larger had no pain or anything. Then I had pain similar to what you describe and was convinced there was something in my hip or leg that I mentioned several times to my doctors, but on successive scans, nothing showed up. Eventually I lost some weight (on purpose) and as I did, the pain improved.Moral of the story? Mention it to your doctors so they can take a look, but there can be a lot of non-melanoma causes of bone pain, so try not to let your mind go wild convinced it's a new metastasis — I know, easier said than done.Best,Joe -
- May 5, 2015 at 7:48 pm
Hi,I've had a number of bone tumors (not as many as Artie!) in three of the four "long bones" of my legs and also in my left shoulder. Some have been symptomatic, some not. My shoulder had 10% bone mass where the tumor was and it was only a dull ache. I had two small tumors in my left tibia that had dull pain when I went for my first run after a treatment in 2011 — sort of like shin splints, but I'd never had shin splints before, and I knew it wasn't muscular. I mentioned it to my doctors and they had me do an x-ray and then MRI and found two small spots. Others that were larger had no pain or anything. Then I had pain similar to what you describe and was convinced there was something in my hip or leg that I mentioned several times to my doctors, but on successive scans, nothing showed up. Eventually I lost some weight (on purpose) and as I did, the pain improved.Moral of the story? Mention it to your doctors so they can take a look, but there can be a lot of non-melanoma causes of bone pain, so try not to let your mind go wild convinced it's a new metastasis — I know, easier said than done.Best,Joe -
- May 5, 2015 at 7:48 pm
Hi,I've had a number of bone tumors (not as many as Artie!) in three of the four "long bones" of my legs and also in my left shoulder. Some have been symptomatic, some not. My shoulder had 10% bone mass where the tumor was and it was only a dull ache. I had two small tumors in my left tibia that had dull pain when I went for my first run after a treatment in 2011 — sort of like shin splints, but I'd never had shin splints before, and I knew it wasn't muscular. I mentioned it to my doctors and they had me do an x-ray and then MRI and found two small spots. Others that were larger had no pain or anything. Then I had pain similar to what you describe and was convinced there was something in my hip or leg that I mentioned several times to my doctors, but on successive scans, nothing showed up. Eventually I lost some weight (on purpose) and as I did, the pain improved.Moral of the story? Mention it to your doctors so they can take a look, but there can be a lot of non-melanoma causes of bone pain, so try not to let your mind go wild convinced it's a new metastasis — I know, easier said than done.Best,Joe -
- May 5, 2015 at 8:25 pm
I had a bone met in my left arm at the time of my Stage IV diagnosis. (This was actually my first Stage IV symptom, but I had no idea at the time. My Stage I melanoma was 10 years earlier on my right shoulder.) I thought I had a repetitive motion-type injury. The pain would "come and go" at first, but in the later stages (6 months after the first pain) it wouldn't "go" at all and was intense and quite limiting. My met was diagnosed with an x-ray, not a CT. (I had been diagnosed with other mets via CT.)
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- May 5, 2015 at 8:25 pm
I had a bone met in my left arm at the time of my Stage IV diagnosis. (This was actually my first Stage IV symptom, but I had no idea at the time. My Stage I melanoma was 10 years earlier on my right shoulder.) I thought I had a repetitive motion-type injury. The pain would "come and go" at first, but in the later stages (6 months after the first pain) it wouldn't "go" at all and was intense and quite limiting. My met was diagnosed with an x-ray, not a CT. (I had been diagnosed with other mets via CT.)
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- May 5, 2015 at 8:25 pm
I had a bone met in my left arm at the time of my Stage IV diagnosis. (This was actually my first Stage IV symptom, but I had no idea at the time. My Stage I melanoma was 10 years earlier on my right shoulder.) I thought I had a repetitive motion-type injury. The pain would "come and go" at first, but in the later stages (6 months after the first pain) it wouldn't "go" at all and was intense and quite limiting. My met was diagnosed with an x-ray, not a CT. (I had been diagnosed with other mets via CT.)
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- May 6, 2015 at 3:53 pm
Thank you.
Well, fingers crossed it's a ligament/nerve issue! Appreciate the responses very much. It sounds like it can sometimes present like what I have, but so do other things, and it can be spotted on regular scans and x-rays. All that is very good to know.
Hopefully CT will come back all clear.
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- May 6, 2015 at 3:53 pm
Thank you.
Well, fingers crossed it's a ligament/nerve issue! Appreciate the responses very much. It sounds like it can sometimes present like what I have, but so do other things, and it can be spotted on regular scans and x-rays. All that is very good to know.
Hopefully CT will come back all clear.
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- May 6, 2015 at 3:53 pm
Thank you.
Well, fingers crossed it's a ligament/nerve issue! Appreciate the responses very much. It sounds like it can sometimes present like what I have, but so do other things, and it can be spotted on regular scans and x-rays. All that is very good to know.
Hopefully CT will come back all clear.
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- May 8, 2015 at 12:18 am
Just wanted to update that the CT came back clear. Still no idea what is causing the pain, but at least, according to this CT, it does not appear to be more melanoma.
Will see what the oncologist thinks when I meet with her next week, but for right now feels like a huge relief.
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- May 8, 2015 at 12:18 am
Just wanted to update that the CT came back clear. Still no idea what is causing the pain, but at least, according to this CT, it does not appear to be more melanoma.
Will see what the oncologist thinks when I meet with her next week, but for right now feels like a huge relief.
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- May 8, 2015 at 12:18 am
Just wanted to update that the CT came back clear. Still no idea what is causing the pain, but at least, according to this CT, it does not appear to be more melanoma.
Will see what the oncologist thinks when I meet with her next week, but for right now feels like a huge relief.
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- August 7, 2019 at 7:09 am
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first-ever therapy for the treatment of a rare disease called tenosynovial giant cell tumors (TGCT).
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