What do bone met's feel like? How do they feel different than a muscle pull or sore muscle?

[Darryl]

What do bone met's feel like? How do they feel different than a muscle pull or sore muscle?

[Zetabow]

Some are lucky and feel little to no pain even with Mets. I was unlucky and had it bad in both Femurs where it had got right down into the Marrow. To me it feels like a needle being inserted into my bone, the pain builds over several min and subsides to a low ache, then repeats. I was taking an insane amount of Opioids for 2 years.

My latest change to Zytiga 7 weeks ago has really helped with pain levels and have been able to cut down on the pain killers. My legs have been the worst area but my PET scan shows nearly every bone has Mets I get the odd flash of pain almost anywhere but the legs never really let up, it became quite depressing, I'm so glad to have a little relief with the Zytiga, I do feel more fatigued now but I'll take fatigue over pain any day.

[Magnus1964]

My pain felt like arthritis but the pain persists even when I sit still.

[Danielgreer]

Hi Darryl, to me, the pain from bone mets (my bone met pain is mostly concentrated in my left hip) is more continuous as opposed to a muscle pull that you may get some relief by just resting. Bone met pain makes it difficult to sleep and walk. It feels like your muscle is tight and won’t release. Ibuprofen doesn’t always work and opioids are the only relief sometimes.

[Shooter1]

Continuous low level pain...spikes when you move, but can't stand to not move....awake every time you move affected area when trying to sleep....more ibuprofen during breaks in sleep periods.

[JamesAtlanta]

I had a met in my t-8 vertebra. Pain initially felt like a pulled muscle. It got worse and worse. I was actually being first treated for a pulled muscle and then a suspected pinched nerve. By the time I was diagnosed with PCa, I was taking 4 Advil every 6 hours. And I was even having to lay on the floor and elevate my feet to get some relief. I also had a strange “vibrating feeling” ... which I guess was related to the met touching my spinal column.

With a bone met, the pain is usually constant. And it does not feel better when you rub the area that hurts, unlike feeling better if you massage a sore muscle.

When I was finally diagnosed, I was put on oxycodone. This helped immediately. Thankfully I had a shot of Firmagon and the pain was dramatically reduced. Then I started radiation.

Much of the pain was gone in a couple of weeks after treatment started, except the residual pain from the damaged vertebra. That took months to heal and still causes some pain.

Hope this helps.

James

[LearnAll in reply to JamesAtlanta]

Good points ..James. Bone pain is usually constant and do not fluctuate much with posture or movement. Also, massage and stretching of the area do not relieve it the way muscle pull or contraction(tightness) gets relieved. Also, bone pain does not move from one spot to another.

[2dee]

Simple flu Dec 2017 two weeks.Severe chronic cough for 6 weeks followed by intense pain that migrated throughout my body for 5mos along with 55lb weight loss from normal 215.

Finally got a PSA test at 1296. Didn't believe so got another a week later at 1303. Very high and climbing a point a day.

MY pain kind at first of felt like I had torn something apart inside with MY severe coughing. But then every day or two the pain focus moved around. A knee, then a shoulder, ribs on one side, the other knee, chest, lower back, other shoulder...

It seemed obvious that I hadn't just torn something "inside" but source of extreme pain not defined by GP. "Tearing" pain just continued and advancing through stronger and stronger drugs over months and extensive weight loss, no sleep, nausea, mental instability due to no sleep.

After 6mos finally had CT, MRI, full body scan showed mets so extensive that I finally got the stage4 Dx and started SOC ADT.

Pain slowly reached tolerable over a few more months and adding CBD to my pain treatment.

Now have PSA reduced from over 1300 down to .3 last week. Regained 40lbs of the 55lbs lost, sleeping pretty well, last bone scan showed mets reduced by about a third. Major fatigue, balance, mental acuity, hot flashes, and all the other side effects are great fun.

I didn't die in 2018 as my first MO stated.

Can't be cured but apparently you can slow the spread and temporarily reduce the severity with the SOC treatments. I find I am BRCA2 positive and my next step when needed will be a PARP inhibitor. Wait and see.

2Dee

[LearnAll in reply to 2dee]

Even if you have BRCA2 mutation, the dramatic ,spectacular fall of PSA from 1300 to 0.3 is very good news. PSA at diagnosis is not of much importance. The most important number is how low it falls.

PSA Nadir 0.3 likely to give you many years.

[j-o-h-n in reply to 2dee]

Good that most of your pain is gone.....Stay that way....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Monday 11/23/2020 9:48 PM EST

[CSHobie]

Gents

I have to agree with the other posts, feels like I'm stabbed with a long thin dagger, or ribs feel like cracked ribs.

What I want to add, Lyrica has been a saving grace for me. I used to take tons of Tylenol, and even with Codeine, but it did almost nothing.

100mg Pregabalin twice a day, wipes out most of the bone pain, and then morphine takes out the muscle/spine related pain in my back.

[TonyS58]

I would never have known that I had mets to the sacrum and L3 without the PSA rise after ADT holiday and the subsequent bone scan and CT scan. It was the spread to the rest of my lumbar vertebrae and the pathological compression fracture of L2 a year later that made it clear that life was going to change forever. Intense back pain when transitioning from lying to sitting or sitting to standing was not controlled by oxycodone. It wasn't until I had a course of IV decadron and a week of oral decadron that the pain was even bearable. Kyphoplasty of L2 provided immediate relief, but a year later, L2 has been entirely filled with tumor and "at risk for imminent fracture". So we wait.

[abmicro]

I can tell how well a treatment is working on how much pain I have. Bone Pain is mostly when I put weight on the bones involved. Sitting with a back brace least amount of pain. MRIs confirm where the source of cancer pain is.

[Zzzgott]

After diagnose of Stage 4 at 10/19 and a year of Lupron and Zytiga/Xtandi. Scans show signs of remission and less pain. 😀

[Chadsdad]

I have never been diagnosed with bone mets. However, being 65 years old I have a lot of the symptoms that these replies mention. Fortunately my pain moves around from place to place and hasn’t been debilitating to this point. I have to assume some of it to be arthritis but there is always that anxiety factor that comes into play, even with a 0.00 PSA on Eligard and Erleada . I guess my point here is to thank you gentleman for the information/knowledge you share. This site has been invaluable to my prostate cancer journey.

[j-o-h-n in reply to Chadsdad]

We thank you for being in the group.....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Monday 11/23/2020 9:52 PM EST

[dhccpa]

The only oncologist I asked said that where I would feel pain would be totally different places than where the actual mets are.

True or not?

I have had no pain so far, fortunately.