Hip Numbness

[czern]

I was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in march of last year. my tumor was just a tiny bit over 1 cm and it was intraductal carcinoma, her2nu positive and hr and pr negative. The surgeon described it as angry and fast growing. after a lumpectomy and lymph removal all the nodes were neg. There were two other very small places inside the margin. I had chemo and radiation. standard amount. I woke four days ago with numbness in my hip that woke me up with pain. It hasn't hurt much since then but the numbness has remained throughout the entire right hip area. I have had pain in my right shoulder for over a year and have been xrayed for it and told it was tendenitis. I had chortozone in it 3 months ago but its back with a vengence. It hurts most when I use it alot or bare any weight. This new developement with my hip is strange and has me concerned. Should I be? Could cancer be in my bones?

[czern]

It was shingles!!

[czern]

Update: Not sure what is happening now. Noticed two red raised bumps on my lower back yesterday. This evening it is more. They are very sore and burn. Just on the right side and once again in the upper hip region. The hip is still numb. Haven't heard back form the Dr. on the xrays yet. Could this be shingles?

[czern]

Went to Dr. yesterday and he sent me for an xray. Will keep everyone updated.

[CCF-RN,MSN-rf]

Dear czern:  As the x-ray of your shoulder has not revealed any damage, other than tendonitis, this is probably the explanation for this.  However, if your hip pain is new, it should be investigated.  It could be a variety of things but since it is new, the source should be investigated.  At a minimum an x-ray should be done.  But an MRI may be needed to further explain the problem.

[czern]

The tumor was a grade 3 and so was the other two smaller ones. Does that matter as to the odds of spread?

[czern]

One thing I have noticed about surgeons comments are that he always goes upon the lymph node involvement as well as the tumor size to determine his prognosis as to the likleyhood of it spreading. I am wondering if the Her2nue percentage is important or is it just that it is overexpressing?

[czern]

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I am going to my Dr. tomorrow and have him check my hip. Do you want me to keep you updated?

[surgeon]

many things enter into a "prognosis." What I've also said many times is that such data are valid when assessing large numbers of people, but not very helpful when addressing an individual situation. Within any group, there are tumors that behave unexpectedly badly, and unexpectedly well. So when a woman with a history of breast cancer develops specific complaints referable to a particular organ or tissue system, metastatic cancer is on the list of things to rule out, no matter the initial stage. I would never, on the basis of staging parameters alone, decide against further investigation of possible metastatic disease. As to HER 2 Neu status: that, like hormone receptors, does in fact affect tumor behavior, but is not currently part of "staging" in terms of deciding stage 1, 2, etc; and likewise does not allow accurate prediction of the behavior of an individual tumor.

[Las]

I am not a doctor but I just want to tell you that after chemo, I had terrible bone pains. It's been 3 years now since I had chemo and I still get the pains . I had a bone scan but they couldn't find anything. Always investigate first but try not to be stressed, it might be a result of the treatments

[surgeon]

It's not impossible. You should report your symptoms to your doctors, and go from there. A bone scan might be a way to check. The size of your tumor, and the fact that the nodes were ok, makes the odds say that it's not due to cancer; however, it makes sense to be cautious and check it out.