Need to be concerned?

I wish you all the best and want to thank you for your service in the corps. My brother in law will retire from the corps this May.

I hope it is just your pillow hurting you. That is an easy fix! Good luck.

I wish you all the best and want to thank you for your service in the corps. My brother in law will retire from the corps this May.

I hope it is just your pillow hurting you. That is an easy fix! Good luck.

I wish you all the best and want to thank you for your service in the corps. My brother in law will retire from the corps this May.

I hope it is just your pillow hurting you. That is an easy fix! Good luck.

Josh, I've had a number of bone mets, but all in the "long bones" of my limbs — both left and right femurs, left tibia, and left humerus.  I wish I could give you an absolute answer on what they feel like.  Relative to some stories I've read, I guess I've been fortunate insofar as none has been excruciating pain.  The first bone met I had was in my left proximal humerus (considered part of the shoulder) when I was originally diagnosed.  I had no pain or discomfort there for three months after it was diagnosed, eventually it became a very mild, dull ache, nothing limiting.  But when I went for my next scan, in a period of six weeks it went from "something we're watching" to fracture risk, even though I was only having the dull ache.  They told me that I had about 10% bone mass there and they were worried that I could fracture it even rolling over onto it wrong in my sleep.  They sent me home that day with a sling and instructions to wear it 24×7 and I had surgery a few weeks later to replace the top of my humerus, including the head (the "ball" of the shoulder ball-and-socket) with a 10 inch titanium rod.  

The first two in my tibia weren't even what I'd call an ache or pain — I decided to go to the gym one night and run on the treadmill and afterwards, it just didn't feel right.  I didn't have a history of shin splints and it didn't feel muscular.  I noticed the same thing a few days later, so when I went for my next set of scans, I mentioned it to the doctor — this, of course, was after I'd had my regular chest to pelvis CT, with the point being that since it was in my shin bone, that CT wasn't going to pick it up.  So he had me have it x-rayed on our way out and he called the next day saying that they couldn't agree if it was something or nothing, so I had an MRI the following week, which found two very small bone mets in my tibia.  Neither was nearly as agressive as the one in my humerus, and neither ever became more painful, and were eventually treated with radiation.  Subsequent ones (another in my tibia, and one in each femur), were completely asymptomatic — no pain, ache, or even sensation that something might be happening.  All were also treated with radiation, and two eventually required surgery (2+ years after radiation).

Like you, I'm hypersensitive to things that are going on (and not afraid to speak up about it — and my doctors have had a positive attitude about it saying that I'm "in tune with my body").  So the irony is that the worst pain I've had, the time I was convinced there was something going on, was about 6-12 months after I had radiation on my femur.  I was having pain in that same area and thought there was new growth there; it would sometimes radiate around from the spot in my mid-thight, through my hips, right into my mid-back.  It would wake me up at night, i.e. it wasn't being made worse by certain activities.  I of course mentioned this at my next scans and they didn't see anything (at that point, because of the bone mets in my tibia, I was doing full-body PET-CT instead of chest-to-pelvis CT for my regular monitoring).  I continued to have the pain and continued to wonder, even through another set or two of scans.  Eventually, as I finished treatments for other (not bone) mets and started feeling physically better (except for this pain), I started exercising more, eating a little better, and losing weight.  As I lost weight, I noticed the pain improve and then go away.  I eventually lost about 50 pounds in 7 months, but even after 15 or 20 pounds I started to notice an improvement.

Long story short (and not to suggest that you need to lose weight, specifically), but there can be many reasons for aches and pains, you've listed a few possibilities yourself, and conversely, sometimes bone mets are asymptomatic.  It's one of our burdens living with melanoma that we'll always have to wonder if that new pain is "something or nothing" and it's all too easy to jump to the worst case.  Absolutely mention it at your next scan, and if your next scan doesn't cover the area where the pain is, make sure you mention it sooner, so that it is inclluded — and it's worth a call to your doctor ahead of time anyway, just to make him/her aware.

Best, Joe

Josh, I've had a number of bone mets, but all in the "long bones" of my limbs — both left and right femurs, left tibia, and left humerus.  I wish I could give you an absolute answer on what they feel like.  Relative to some stories I've read, I guess I've been fortunate insofar as none has been excruciating pain.  The first bone met I had was in my left proximal humerus (considered part of the shoulder) when I was originally diagnosed.  I had no pain or discomfort there for three months after it was diagnosed, eventually it became a very mild, dull ache, nothing limiting.  But when I went for my next scan, in a period of six weeks it went from "something we're watching" to fracture risk, even though I was only having the dull ache.  They told me that I had about 10% bone mass there and they were worried that I could fracture it even rolling over onto it wrong in my sleep.  They sent me home that day with a sling and instructions to wear it 24×7 and I had surgery a few weeks later to replace the top of my humerus, including the head (the "ball" of the shoulder ball-and-socket) with a 10 inch titanium rod.  

The first two in my tibia weren't even what I'd call an ache or pain — I decided to go to the gym one night and run on the treadmill and afterwards, it just didn't feel right.  I didn't have a history of shin splints and it didn't feel muscular.  I noticed the same thing a few days later, so when I went for my next set of scans, I mentioned it to the doctor — this, of course, was after I'd had my regular chest to pelvis CT, with the point being that since it was in my shin bone, that CT wasn't going to pick it up.  So he had me have it x-rayed on our way out and he called the next day saying that they couldn't agree if it was something or nothing, so I had an MRI the following week, which found two very small bone mets in my tibia.  Neither was nearly as agressive as the one in my humerus, and neither ever became more painful, and were eventually treated with radiation.  Subsequent ones (another in my tibia, and one in each femur), were completely asymptomatic — no pain, ache, or even sensation that something might be happening.  All were also treated with radiation, and two eventually required surgery (2+ years after radiation).

Like you, I'm hypersensitive to things that are going on (and not afraid to speak up about it — and my doctors have had a positive attitude about it saying that I'm "in tune with my body").  So the irony is that the worst pain I've had, the time I was convinced there was something going on, was about 6-12 months after I had radiation on my femur.  I was having pain in that same area and thought there was new growth there; it would sometimes radiate around from the spot in my mid-thight, through my hips, right into my mid-back.  It would wake me up at night, i.e. it wasn't being made worse by certain activities.  I of course mentioned this at my next scans and they didn't see anything (at that point, because of the bone mets in my tibia, I was doing full-body PET-CT instead of chest-to-pelvis CT for my regular monitoring).  I continued to have the pain and continued to wonder, even through another set or two of scans.  Eventually, as I finished treatments for other (not bone) mets and started feeling physically better (except for this pain), I started exercising more, eating a little better, and losing weight.  As I lost weight, I noticed the pain improve and then go away.  I eventually lost about 50 pounds in 7 months, but even after 15 or 20 pounds I started to notice an improvement.

Long story short (and not to suggest that you need to lose weight, specifically), but there can be many reasons for aches and pains, you've listed a few possibilities yourself, and conversely, sometimes bone mets are asymptomatic.  It's one of our burdens living with melanoma that we'll always have to wonder if that new pain is "something or nothing" and it's all too easy to jump to the worst case.  Absolutely mention it at your next scan, and if your next scan doesn't cover the area where the pain is, make sure you mention it sooner, so that it is inclluded — and it's worth a call to your doctor ahead of time anyway, just to make him/her aware.

Best, Joe

Josh, I've had a number of bone mets, but all in the "long bones" of my limbs — both left and right femurs, left tibia, and left humerus.  I wish I could give you an absolute answer on what they feel like.  Relative to some stories I've read, I guess I've been fortunate insofar as none has been excruciating pain.  The first bone met I had was in my left proximal humerus (considered part of the shoulder) when I was originally diagnosed.  I had no pain or discomfort there for three months after it was diagnosed, eventually it became a very mild, dull ache, nothing limiting.  But when I went for my next scan, in a period of six weeks it went from "something we're watching" to fracture risk, even though I was only having the dull ache.  They told me that I had about 10% bone mass there and they were worried that I could fracture it even rolling over onto it wrong in my sleep.  They sent me home that day with a sling and instructions to wear it 24×7 and I had surgery a few weeks later to replace the top of my humerus, including the head (the "ball" of the shoulder ball-and-socket) with a 10 inch titanium rod.  

The first two in my tibia weren't even what I'd call an ache or pain — I decided to go to the gym one night and run on the treadmill and afterwards, it just didn't feel right.  I didn't have a history of shin splints and it didn't feel muscular.  I noticed the same thing a few days later, so when I went for my next set of scans, I mentioned it to the doctor — this, of course, was after I'd had my regular chest to pelvis CT, with the point being that since it was in my shin bone, that CT wasn't going to pick it up.  So he had me have it x-rayed on our way out and he called the next day saying that they couldn't agree if it was something or nothing, so I had an MRI the following week, which found two very small bone mets in my tibia.  Neither was nearly as agressive as the one in my humerus, and neither ever became more painful, and were eventually treated with radiation.  Subsequent ones (another in my tibia, and one in each femur), were completely asymptomatic — no pain, ache, or even sensation that something might be happening.  All were also treated with radiation, and two eventually required surgery (2+ years after radiation).

Like you, I'm hypersensitive to things that are going on (and not afraid to speak up about it — and my doctors have had a positive attitude about it saying that I'm "in tune with my body").  So the irony is that the worst pain I've had, the time I was convinced there was something going on, was about 6-12 months after I had radiation on my femur.  I was having pain in that same area and thought there was new growth there; it would sometimes radiate around from the spot in my mid-thight, through my hips, right into my mid-back.  It would wake me up at night, i.e. it wasn't being made worse by certain activities.  I of course mentioned this at my next scans and they didn't see anything (at that point, because of the bone mets in my tibia, I was doing full-body PET-CT instead of chest-to-pelvis CT for my regular monitoring).  I continued to have the pain and continued to wonder, even through another set or two of scans.  Eventually, as I finished treatments for other (not bone) mets and started feeling physically better (except for this pain), I started exercising more, eating a little better, and losing weight.  As I lost weight, I noticed the pain improve and then go away.  I eventually lost about 50 pounds in 7 months, but even after 15 or 20 pounds I started to notice an improvement.

Long story short (and not to suggest that you need to lose weight, specifically), but there can be many reasons for aches and pains, you've listed a few possibilities yourself, and conversely, sometimes bone mets are asymptomatic.  It's one of our burdens living with melanoma that we'll always have to wonder if that new pain is "something or nothing" and it's all too easy to jump to the worst case.  Absolutely mention it at your next scan, and if your next scan doesn't cover the area where the pain is, make sure you mention it sooner, so that it is inclluded — and it's worth a call to your doctor ahead of time anyway, just to make him/her aware.

Best, Joe