Shooting pains

[SEM1956]

Anyone with recurrent ovarian cancer ever experience shooting pains?  Almost feels like electricity shooting from within my abdominal to the breast?  I know if it lasted longer than a second, it wouldn't be able to bare it.

[PPhelps]

I don't have OVCA, but I have this pain, but only around my ovaries. I always said it felt like my ovary was being stabbed with an ice pick or static electricity, you know how sometime is hurts when you touch something and it shocks you. Having that on your ovaries around 20 times a day isn't fun. It will only last maybe 15-20 seconds but damn sometimes it can double you over. And pain pills don't work. I've taken 600 mg Ibuprofen and Vicadin (sp). These pains are especially bad at ovulation. They last longer. I know this didn't answer your question. But hopefully it helped a little.

[SimplyStar]

Leslee started getting those pains you describe, when she had her PET scan it showed 3 small lesions on the abdominal wall.  Those lesions have not grown any but she now has a bladder involvement and the pains remain the same.  Any nerves that were cut when you had your surgery can still send out messages and if those lines are disrupted  a sharp pain does exsist. These last for seconds. When my brothers leg was amputated , he still had a sense of feeling in his toes and sharp pains that went down a leg that was not there. The nerves send the messages to the brain, and the brain routes them to where the message is being sent, if that nerve is cut or injured in anyway that it cannot recieve, then there is a "jangling" pain.

[Janet535]

Hi there,

I was dx with re-current ovarian cancer in Nov last year. After commencing chemo, I experienced a lot of bone pain, which unfortunately is ongoing as is the chemo.

But the "sharp/shooting" pains you described also came along. They can hit at any time, with no warning, I experience them in different areas of my body. Sometimes in my stomach/abdomin area, some times in my legs or arms, or my wrists and feet. It feels like some one has taken a sharp knife or needle and stuck it into you and a searing pain follows. I gather this is what you are experiencing too?

Fortunately, the pain doesn't last long, anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or two at the very most,  but when it is happening, it's with out a doubt the worst pain i have ever experienced. I told my onco about the pain and he said he was aware that a  few other women had experienced the same thing. He advised he could give me extra pain killers to try and help but I decided against taking more pain killers as the pain is periodic and it wasn't a gradual thing where by i knew it was coming on. But that was my choice, Do mention it to your onco and or pain management team, they may suggest something that will help you.

The up side is, that i have found the frequency of these pains has lessened over time. In the beginning, I was getting them anywhere from 20 - 30 times a day, now, 39 weeks down the track and i'm still on chemo, the shooting/stabbing pains come  far less frequently. I can go days without getting them and when i do, it can be only 5 - 6 times on that day. And i've learnt to live with them.

hmmmmm... I guess my post hasn't been all that encouraging, but i just wanted you to know, that you're not the only one that gets them and in my case they have eased off a lot, and i soooo hope they do for you too, soon real soon!

Wishing you all the best and hoping you are pain free soon... Janet

[Mary 53]

I have heard that sometimes there can be a feeling of something like a "shock" feeling in the body associated with Menopause, which I am assuming you have gone throug. I have had similar pains more in the breast/chest area much of my life... not frequently, but when they occured prior to my surgical menopause back in 2000, they seemed to come just a few days before my period. My sister (a nurse) always calmed my fears.

The other thought that I'd initially thought of when I saw this post was that it could possibly be pain associated with surgical adhesions, but that pain is more of a combination of sharp/tugging pain. I did not get a chance to put my information about surgical adhesions on the board as I'd hoped this weekend, so let me know if you want the information.

Well, not sure if this is helpful or not... but I know others will be on with more information. My information in this area is limitied.

I am sorry you are having to deal with all of this.. and the pain.

Sincerely, Mary