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Topic: Extreme pain in left collarbone area

Forum: Just Diagnosed With a Recurrence or Metastasis —

Meet others who are just facing the diagnosis of a recurrence of breast cancer or metastatic (advanced) disease. You are NOT alone.

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Posted on: Feb 19, 2021 10:07AM

welcome_alb wrote:

I am caring for my aunt, who has just been diagnosed with bone mets after 2 breast cancer occurrences which each resulted in a mastectomy. Her issue is that the left side of her neck is hurting her terribly. She had an incident that sent her to the emergency room where they wound up doing a chest xray and then a CT scan because she was complaining about pain in her left chest. The CT scan showed bone lesions in the left clavicle (collarbone) and lower left rib. The pain kept getting worse and it became very swollen and hot to the touch and red along the left side of her neck/collarbone. They did biopsy on left lower rib and identified metastasized breast cancer. The oncologist said the xray on the left side did NOT show bone lesion on left clavicle. She ordered pet scan and bone scan which will show all areas of bone cancer for certain. My question is does anybody else have swelling and redness on areas where they have bone mets? Is there anything that helps while we wait to get to the point of radiation? She takes the pain pills (hydrocodeine) but still suffers a lot. Her GP had her do a round of antibiotics after which the swelling and redness seemed to go away for a bit, but the pain never stopped and now it is getting worse again. Has anybody experienced something like this? Thanks for any feedback.

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Feb 19, 2021 11:43AM Moderators wrote:

Hi welcome_alb, and welcome to Breastcancer.org.

We're so very sorry to hear of your aunt's recent progression, though we're really glad you've found our community and decided to reach out. You're sure to find great support and advice here!

While you'll likely get some answers here, we also wanted to point you to the Bone Mets Thread in the Stage IV forum, where you can ask our members with a similar diagnosis so they can weigh in with their experience.

We hope this helps and that you get answers soon and that your aunt finds relief soon as well! Please keep us posted with how she is doing.

--The Mods

To send a Private Message to the Mods: community.breastcancer.org/mem...
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Feb 19, 2021 02:31PM - edited Feb 19, 2021 02:33PM by JavaJana

Hello welcome_alb.

I have a metastasis to my right clavicle, and it was very, very painful. I thought I pulled a muscle after doing some yardwork at first (there is a muscle from our neck to the clavicle) but over a period of two or three days it led to my entire shoulder and upper arm becoming painful and contracted to where I could barely move that arm. I had a PET scan around the same time due to a pelvic mass discovered right before I was to start chemo, and that showed the Mets. A CT a month earlier was clear. This pain and loss of function was so severe it would have led to my mets discovery for sure as I would have demanded a work up for it! I had no Rx for pain since I was undiagnosed, only high doses of good old fashioned aspirin even touched the pain.

I had no skin issues or warmth, but there is a lump in the bone that can clearly be felt and seen. The good news was immediately upon beginning chemo the pain began to subside, and I now have my full range of motion back. It still aches occasionally but really minimally.

I'm not sure what the cancer features and treatments ordered for your aunt are, but I pray her treatment works as well and quickly as mine did to relieve her pain. Also definitely talk to her oncologist about radiation treatment to the area - I did not have rads since I was no longer symptomatic, but pain is a reason for rads to be considered.

Best wishes! 🙏💜


Xgeva 9/2/2020. History: 2 Borderline Serous Ovarian Carcinoma TAH/BSO, 0/15 nodes - 2/18/20. Benign Papilloma/ADH Left breast, excisional biopsy 10/11/2016 Dx 10/1/2019, IDC, Left, <1cm, Stage IA, Grade 2, 0/1 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2+ (IHC) Dx 10/23/2019, LCIS/DCIS, Right, 0/1 nodes Surgery 11/18/2019 Lymph node removal: Sentinel; Mastectomy: Left, Right Dx 3/25/2020, IDC, Stage IV, metastasized to bone, 0/2 nodes Chemotherapy 4/7/2020 Taxotere (docetaxel) Targeted Therapy 4/7/2020 Perjeta (pertuzumab) Targeted Therapy 4/8/2020 Herceptin (trastuzumab) Hormonal Therapy 8/12/2020 Femara (letrozole)
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Feb 22, 2021 10:00AM welcome_alb wrote:

Thank you so much for your very helpful reply. I'm going to let my aunt know that the treatment started relieving the pain quickly for you. It will make her feel like there's hope for relief. Thank you so much for sharing.

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Feb 22, 2021 10:01AM welcome_alb wrote:

Thank you for the information. I will check out that topic as well.

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