Newly diagnosed after severe pain, nocturia and urine retention- can bone mets cause fractures and other issues?

[Orion9899]

I'm newly diagnosed with bone metastasis. Hips, spine , ribs.

Feeling terrified and scared.

Did anyone have bone fractures and other issues from bone mets?

The survival stats are causing me a lot of distress.

[PHnerd]

Hi there, I’m the daughter of a long-time patient. My dad was diagnosed with pelvic lymph node spread at the outside in 2012 (almost 11 years ago). He’s only recently had bone mets (pelvic) but lymph node spread is considered to be stage 4a. I would not distress so much with statistics. Look at my father, it’s been 11 years and he’s still here and I’m still not throwing the towel in for him. You definitely shouldn’t either.

I can’t comment on the fractures or anything of the sort, but more power to you. You will get through this. What I can say is a good spirit and strong mentality will be your best friend (it’s what I’ve been trying to instill in my father).

[mrscruffy in reply to PHnerd]

I was diagnosed 6 1/2 years ago with mets on spine and pelvis, I am still here and keeping up with my treatments. As far as bone fractures I work out most every day and lift heavy, I have had no problems

[Orion9899 in reply to mrscruffy]

Thank you- Did you have pain in your back or hips before you were diagnosed?

[mrscruffy in reply to Orion9899]

I have never had pain before or after diagnosis. I hear I am lucky in this matter

[Bspouse in reply to Orion9899]

My husband was in terrible back pain when he was diagnosed ( stage 4 mets to bones and many lymph nodes) He also had DVTs ( deep vein blood clots) in both legs causing his legs to swell. ADT treatment and steroids helped the pain almost instantly. The DVTs and leg swelling took 6 months to resolve but eventually went away.

[Orion9899 in reply to PHnerd]

Thank you. I can't stand for more than a few minutes due to the back pain.

[Miccoman in reply to Orion9899]

Hang in there. I have had extensive spine mets since 2014. After imaging to insure that there was no spinal cord compression, this old man addressed back pain by loosing weight and going to physical therapy to strengthen my core, lower back and hips. Helped a lot and I still do the exercises to keep my 73 year old body moving. YMMV

And don't forget step 1. Double check any information you are provided as my case is not your case, even if they are similar. And before you do any exercise, I think imaging of your spine to make sure there is no spinal cord involvement would be wise.

Relax, breathe deep and know that you will be around for years. But do get your affairs in order now to distract you a bit and get it out of the way. Oh, and look both ways before crossing the street, you'd hate to deprive the medical industry of all the $$$$$$$$$ they will make from your treatment in the coming years!

[CAMPSOUPS]

I have an errand to run so for now just quickly want to say take a deep breath and importantly do not try to find out expectancy and all by searching the internet.

Continue to browse posts here and get a feel for how you will soon be feeling better once treatment starts. Physically which will ease you mentally.

Its a lot to swallow I know. I had a PSA of 1621 and bone mets from skull to shins and lymph mets from pelvis to collarbone when I was first diagnosed 3 years ago. I was extremely panicked, couldn't breathe, mind totally racing.. I thought I was a goner in a matter of a couple months at best. These past 3 years have given me and my family time to slowly adapt to this. I went from panic to damn it everything we had planned for the future was taken away by this. But really you adapt and you do what you can. Enjoy the simple things if that's all you can manage.

Even your Dr./MO can't predict your survival. First you have to respond to treatment which thankfully almost everyone does. Then how long on the treatments do you respond and there are many treatments.

I hope you will be able to find some peace soon. I found the treatment suggestions and once I started treatment to be like Zen. I was doing something to knock down the cancer.

Have you seen an MO (medical oncologist) yet ?

[Orion9899 in reply to CAMPSOUPS]

Thank you. Did you have back, hip or bone pain?

[CAMPSOUPS in reply to Orion9899]

Yes. Right shoulder and scapula I thought I had torn a ligament yanking open a stuck storage garage door. Ribs were all tender and thought I was getting a visceral outer chest cavity inflammation. Hurt to lightly lean against the couch pillow arm rest. Femur and humerous pain too. Walked, still do with a bit of a limp.

Back pain but I had already had back pain come and go and stick around at different pain levels for 35 years. Scans showed same compressed discs, degenerative disease and cancer metastasis.

[Tall_Allen]

I hope you will begin with triplet therapy: Docetaxel+(Nubeqa or Zytiga)+Lupron. It should relieve your pain. There is substantial survival improvement with that:

prostatecancer.news/2021/05...

Bone fractures usually don't occur until after you become castration resistant. Not a bad idea to ask for a baseline DEXA scan.

[spencoid2]

Bone mets can cause fractures, it is called a pathologic fracture, I think. Mine was a total fluke because it was in my sternum and it is difficult to impact that but I managed to. I am now taking Xgeva to minimize the chance of this. There are plenty of exceptions to survival stats and I am planning on being one. Please plan on being one too.

Trying to not pay attention to the survival stats.

[Orion9899 in reply to spencoid2]

Did you have any symptoms like pain?

[spencoid2 in reply to Orion9899]

currently no pain, i did have minor bone pain at one time but that stopped. the real pain was after the break.

[JD-guy]

hello,. I was dx in Feb 2021, with extensive bone mets. Infection in my prostate shortly after. I fractured a couple of ribs shortly after dx, then 6 months later, during chemo, I cracked another one. CT scans have confirmed this later. You can find more information on my profile. I do not have a lot of pain in my bones, right now, but I do have back pain that seems more muscular .Some of it comes from back issues that I have had for years and also inflammation from some of my oral meds. I have pain here and there that come and go. This journey can be discouraging at times, but I try to focus on what I have, not what I do not have. I have so much to thank the Lord for and be grateful for. Keith

[Orion9899 in reply to JD-guy]

Hi, did you have back or hip pain before diagnosis or was that due to the treatment?

[JD-guy in reply to Orion9899]

I had a lot of pain in my Left upper arm from the bone Mets before dx, that I took quite a bit of Tylenol for the pain. I had radiation to help that pain. I had a little back pain before treatments also, but I have lived with back pain from disc problems for quite a number of years. Lupron and Casedex helped the pain also. My pain went away during chemo and some times it comes and goes now, most of it is muscular. My PSA is very low and as long as I keep it down, my pain is kept down. One thing to remember, is that we are all different and respond differently. We get the Bone Mets at different places. Read my profile, if you have not. My dx put me in a tail spin, it took me some time to get my feet back on the ground and live life. my advice to you is to get a MO and a RO on board. In my opinion, I would not let the Urologist treat your cancer. At least my experience was not favorable when the urologist wanted to treat me. I am not a Dr., I am only a man with Advanced PC telling you my experience. I have not been on this journey as long as some of the men on this forum. You can do research on this forum and find quite a number of answers and men with the same kind of issues. I have found a lot of answers and encouragement here. Do the triplet-therapy that Tall-Allen suggested. thanks

[Hidden]

diagnosed with metastasis with two vertebrae in my spine in 2004. I initially worried about fracture and spinal compression leaving me paralyzed. Yes, weaken bones by metastatic lesions can cause a weakening and fracture. However, with modern medicine almost all can be rectified, quit worrying and just don’t do anything stupid to stress. See your specialist and get a proper diagnosis and follow their treatment path,

GD

[Orion9899 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. Did you have persistent back ache before your diagnosis?

[Hidden in reply to Orion9899]

I have had lower back pain most of my life. Muscle strain. A muscle gets inflamed and knots. One area feels warm to the touch and you can feel the knot. No association with cancer. If there is concern, see an orthopedist. I did

[Woodstock82]

Lower back pain is what sent me to the doctor in the first place. Turns out I have a compression fracture in my L4 vertebra.

Meloxicam reduced the pain to a tolerable level. ADT and chemo have kept the cancer quiescent for the past three years. I still have meloxicam available, but instead of taking it daily I take it only on an "as needed" basis, which turns out to be about once a month.

I may not be curable, but the treatments are doing well for me. Some day my PSA will start to rise again. Probable next therapy will be some type of PSMA treatment, backup is enzalutamide, and immunotherapy is also an option.

Take a breath. You have time and many options available to you.

I'm not taking out any mortgages, but I'm still buying green bananas.

[Benkaymel]

I was diagnosed in April this year with stage 4 PCa metastatic to bones and lymph nodes. I'd had some lower back pain for a while and had to be careful how I got up out of chairs. I thought that was due to too much heavy lifting of gear for the rock band I play in. I also had sciatic pain down my right leg which I thought was due to a muscle knot in my buttock. A series of osteopathic sessions more or less resolved the leg pain but I also had a dull ache under my right shoulder blade which I thought was muscular due to leaning too heavily on a walking stick when the sciatic pain was really bad. My assumptions were all proved to be wrong!

After diagnosis, it turned out that I have a large tumour (met) on the right pelvic bone, a smaller one on my back right-hand side and one on my T5 spine vertebrae so I now realise that they were the cause of my pain all along.

[rsgdmd]

I was diagnosed in April, 2022 with mets to 6 spots in bones & some lymph nodes. Always had lower back problems & didn't realize until after the fact that the worsening lower back/hip pain was a sign of prostate cancer. After a week or so on Casodex, my lower back felt much better.

I also freaked out about the longevity statistics, but came to realize that those stats are old. There are many more treatments available to prolong life.