Guest Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 My son was dx stage 4 adenocarcinoma on 15 Dec, 2003. He started Chemo on 31 Dec 2003. Carbo Taxol and Gemzar on a 3 week schedule. He had a Ct scan and was told there was a minimum of 30% shrinkage and a lot of the small tumors on his liver were gone. The liver mets were the only mets they looked for. My son was having some pain in a bone in his back and we told the Onc. I asked if they would be doing a bone scan and he said not at this time. Well, my son started having a lot more pain and ended up in the ER where they did a lung X-ray thinking it was some kind of infection since his Heomglobin was at 9.8 after his 3rd set of Chemo. No infection! sent home. We then went to start the 4th round of Chemo yesterday and the Onc checked my sons pain in his back and side. He told us he thinks he has a compression fracture in his spine and we should get a bone scan. We had the bone scan today and the radiologist showed my son his scan and told him the white spots were tumors. There are 5 on the spine, 1 on the shoulder and 1 in the rib cage. She asked if there was any pain in the shoulder area and my son said no. She said there will be soon. My son told me the ones on the spine were about an inch long and you could only see a little of the spine bone on the sides. Now what? Radiation or what? Will the spine break like the rib did? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tess Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 My husband has mets to his spine, rib and hip. Cancer filled up his T12 Vertebre. There was no pain yet, he did 25 or 30 doses of radiation in the his T12 vertebre, hip and Lung. It took away the pain in his hip after 2 or 3 doses! (It barel showed up on the scan) His vertebre still doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, as soon as the radiation was done, this is when his rib started to hurt. (This didn't even show up on the scan) This was back in Oct. 2003. We just got another bone scan done this last Tuesdsy. We go the the Dr tomorrow and find out what's going on. He has not had any fractures that we know of yet. (?) Just make sure your son doesn't do anything to get a fracture. My husband's Dr says with the weakened bones, its real easy to fracture a bone. Good luck to your son! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie Daughter of Bill Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 My Dad also has several bone mets. He has no pain with his though. He will be getting Zometa, an intravenous drug to help with the bone mets. Zometa is suppose to strengthen the bones and lessen the chance of fractures. It can also slow the progression of the bone mets, sometimes stops it completely. Ask about this drug. Radiation can also be done to help with the pain of the bone mets. Wsihing your son the best of luck. Angie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Wood Posted March 5, 2004 Share Posted March 5, 2004 My wife had bone mets to the spine, hip, skull, ribs, sacrum and fibula. Those spots that gave constant pain and/or were threatening bone integrity were treated with radiation. She took chemo as well. The radiation diminished the pain significantly. She is now on Zometa, which is taken by IV once a month, to strengthen bones and ward off bone mets. So far, it is working. You might ask about it. Good luck. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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