Elaine Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 For the past two weeks, I have this excruitiating pain in my upper back-that just arises after some kind of movement (raising my left shoulder while leaning my head to the left at the same time). It lasts about a few seconds and if I move the area it will continue to jab, seer and tear a few more times. I don't know if it's bone pain or not. So I go to urgent care and try to describe this pain and I am told bone pain is continuous and dull. Well, I have read that too, and I have also read otherwise but it's not like you can say "I read it on the Internet" and feel like you are saying something that sounds credible. I am told it is muscle pain. I don't all the way believe that because I can't feel a trigger point or recreate the pain by jabbing around where it is. This pain is so b ad that if it lasted more than the few seconds it does, I could not stand it. Of course I cant get the pain to occure while I am there. (though now I can). Then the Dr and I discuss anatomy, which I don't know much of but I do know there is bone there (clavicle or part of the scapula, I don't know). The short end is that I get NOTHING done. Maybe a bone scan next week sometime IF the HMO approves it since this is not typical bone pain. It is hard to describe a pain that I have nothing to compare it to, so I say jabbing, burning seering, tingling, sharp and he asks me "Well, which one?" as if none of those words go together. I have a paraneoplastic syndrome called Hypertrophic pulmonary osteoarthropy that causes a lot of bone or perissteal pain to the touch and some joint pain, but it is symmetrical pain and this is not. I tell him that HPOA is symmetrical pain and he says, "I didn't know that." 10-15 per cent of all LC patients have this, which means at least 20,000 people each year develop it and Drs don't know about it? This very same Dr didn't know if it could be the cause of my leg swelling a month ago--it could very well have been though it is unusual for it to just come up for a few days and leave. So if he doesn't know, I think that's great, but shouldn't he try to find out what is causing this pain. He treated me like I was just some person off the street with some mild pain and not a cancer patient and get this: "When I showed him the movement that sometimes seemed to draw the pain out, he said "Well don't do that!" GRRRRRRRR Would an xray show something? He seemed to say it wouldn't but he didn't really say that, soooo. elaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 PS. He did mention ligament pain. But I have never torn a ligament that I know of and thus have no idea what that would feel like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Wood Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 If this doc and yourself aren't communicating satisfactority for yuo, can you go to another doc that hopefully you can talk with? This relationship doesn't seem to be very satisfactory for you. It could be bone pain, it could be muscle pain, etc. Lucie has these pains every now and then, and sometimes it is hard to pinpoint the cause. But the onc listens and makes suggestions -- he doesn't blow her off. I hope you can find someone like that. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna G Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 I never heard of your condition so I looked it up at this site I found http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=8397 It also says that is can affect muscles, not only joints and bones. Donna G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 Donna, I dont think it's that, mainly because this pain is so different and the HPOA pain is symmetrical and only one side of my (sheesh I don't know if it's considered my shoulder or my back!) hurts. I tried looking up anatomy of that area and it's not easy for me to understand it. Lots of mucscle and tendon and yes, bone. Now it does hurt to poke at it but maybe because I have been poking at it. lol! Don. I am only allowed one Dr change a year. I am new to this forsaken town and so if I do run accross someone I will make the change then. I just can' believe that HMOs take so much choice away from patients--even choosing Drs. That's why I have went to Urgent Care last two times. It's in the same building as my Dr. so they have my records but I don't have to see him. He was supposed to call and follow up on my swelling but never did. He and I have never had a disagreement and I can't even imagine that he even has a clue that I am not happy with him, so that is not the reason why. I think he is uncomfortable with cancer patients. I was assigned him, and his thing is occupational medicine. Not even sure what that is. I just can't see why I need to wait 10-14 days to get a scan--they have them there. It's not so much the physical pain but the distress of all of this that at times seems unbearable. Thanks for listening. I guess I was just venting, mostly. I don't know what mets feel like, but I just know they don't all feel alike, as he suggested. elaine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Wood Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Yep, you are right. All people don't expereince the same type of pains, and all pain is not the same. Why aren't you seeing an oncologist who specializes in cancer? Sorry if I missed that. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimblanchard Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 deleting all posts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 Hi Elaine, I wonder if this could be caused by a pinched nerve somewhere, it sounds like that kind of pain. Paddy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karenl Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 Elaine Surely the Occ Medicine guy is not the one you are seeing about the cancer??!! Before I became a Mum, I used to work with Occupational Physicians, and I can't imagine they would have the first clue about cancer, although I would have thought he would be more helpful and have at least some idea about possible causes for your pain!! If you are receiving inadequate medical care, I would complain long and loud. I don't know how things work in the States. I know that Mum has NEVER had a problem getting any kind of test she felt she needed. It does mean she paid alot of money a couple of times to go privately rather than sit on a long waiting list in a public hospital. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this. As we all know, cancer is hard enough without the additional stress of poor medical care. I hope that you get the tests you need done, and they show that the pain is NOT cancer-related. All the best Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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