New bed: Back ache or bone mets; what are symptoms?

01-25-2006, 01:07 PM

I have been quite distressed about the nagging lower back ache I've been experiencing ever since we bought a new bed in Dec. But, now that we've had it a month, I've had this backache and my husband says it can't be the bed. He loves it. Then, I go and meet somebody who was diagnosed with bc in the mid-'80s and now has bone mets and has back pain in the same area. So, my concerns have jumped to another level.

I don't know if it's the bed, if I need to stretch, if it's arthritis, but I run the gamut of thinking it's nothing to thinking the worst. Can someone on the board tell me more about bone mets and their symptoms. What tests are performed to rule out something serious?

If you are familiar with this subject: Where is the location of your pain and what is the pain level on a pain scale of 1-10, if I may ask? For me, it comes and goes, but is usually there more in the a.m. Does it ever go away for you with yoga or Tylenol and can you describe it further? My discomfort in the lower right center of my back where the waist meets the hip and it feels like it involves the soas muscle (sp.?) in the front by the right groin at times, too. This week, I'm sleeping in our old bed, as a test, and am going to try it for one week, to see if the pain subsides. Sorry for all the questions. Thank you.

Lyn · 01-26-2006, 07:42 AM

I love my bed, my hubby hates it, says he can't sleep always complaining of aches and pains. I asked my onc about bone mets and he say the pain is really really severe and harad to relieve the pain with over the counter drugs. As far as I know I don't have it but I have other issues and I am on constant around the clock pain relief for nerve damage to my right shoulder. A bone scan usually picks up bone mets, they appear as hot spots on the image. Have you had one yet, they are usually scheduled quite regularly for us BC patients. It was a bone scan that picked up that I had a damaged left shoulder after X-Rays couldn't find anything, then a MRI showed I had a fracture of the humeral head which had turned into avascular necrosis, meaning the blood supply to the bone had been cut off and the bone was dying and brittle, now they just call it arthritis and I need a shoulder replacement, chemo makes our bones weak so it doesn't take much to injure them. Put your mind at ease and ask for a Bone Scan, this is your right.

Love & Hugs Lyn

Esther · 01-26-2006, 08:57 AM

It's hard to say, it could be bone mets, or it could be an old injury flaring up because of the new bed.

About 15 years ago I was rear ended in a car accident, and for some reason, it flared up about a year ago. We bought a new tempure pedic bed, and the pain completely went away. So it COULD be the bed.

I would ask your onc for a bone scan just to check. Hopefully it isn't bone mets, but there are many who have had bone mets diagnosed and are successfully treating it long term.

Me included, my bone mets have been NED for 18 months now, maintained with just Herceptin.