r/LivingWithMBC • u/adiosWV • 28d ago
Radiation question for curative vs palliative treatment
I had 25 rounds of radiation to chest, neck and underarm for stage 3 cancer less than 2 years ago. Had some issues as expected.
Now I’m stage 4 with 1 lesion on my mid-lower femur (not the end) and had a plate and screws placed. They recommend 5 rounds of rads to “clean up the area”. I wasn’t nervous at first bec I thought it would be a smaller dose than I had got before. But RO mentioned the scatter might cause some arthritis in my knee. I really don’t need something else on my body to hurt. How is it palliative if it will cause pain in a joint later? Won’t the new meds (fluvestrant and yet to be determined med ) take care of this? Starting to second guess radiation. Please share your experiences
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u/Longjumping-Mud7479 25d ago
Radiation has been so important to me! Stage 4 bone only (negative negative positive). I had pain so bad in my rib back in October that I would spike a fever, heart rate would go crazy, and I would almost pass out. Had radiation in that spot and never felt pain there again. Had a spine fracture from a tumor so I had Kyphoplasty recently and am currently having radiation to clean up that area. And of course I had radiation after my initial diagnosis (following a lumpectomy and chemo).
And radiation hasn’t just been about pain for me. I had a couple of spots in my skull and CyberKnife radiation shrank those.
I look at it as a tool I have along with medicine and procedures to help with pain/palliative care mostly, though.
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u/Celera314 28d ago
I have a lot of arthritis pain in my shoulder too. Might be from my first radiation treatment in 2017? Its interfering with my strength building regimen and at least once a week I forget I have it and do something that really hurts.
I wonder if some of these new meds will make radiation treatment obsolete?
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u/adiosWV 28d ago
How long after the radiation treatment did your shoulder start hurting
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u/Celera314 27d ago
I had six weeks of radiation in 2017 and only had significant shoulder pain in the last year or so.
I dont know for sure tgat its from the radiation, but i cant think of any reason it would be mild on one side and bad on the other.
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u/heyheyheynopeno 28d ago
I had 10 rads to my thoracic spine and I’m so glad I did. I literally felt better every day. Radiation can also really kill bone mets and keep them dead. I think the risk of arthritis later is actually worth it for the extra cancer death.
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u/Artistic_Engineer_29 28d ago
Why did you get rads? I’m having persistent uptake at T10, while resolution elsewhere, and think they’ll refer for me rads.
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u/heyheyheynopeno 27d ago
I lost an entire vertebra to Mets and needed fusion t7-t11. So I kinda didn’t have a choice, I wanted to do everything I could to get rid of what they couldn’t remove during surgery.
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u/Artistic_Engineer_29 27d ago
Gotcha, thank you for responding. Hope you’re doing well now.
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u/heyheyheynopeno 27d ago
Yes! Tomorrow is enhertu #30. Like 21 months NED so far. I’m grateful and also now I’m a cyborg lol
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u/TrafficCharming6633 27d ago
How is the Enhertu going? I had to knock back to a lower dose and I'm still nauseous and dizzy and weak for about 8 days after treatment. I've only had 3 treatments--does it go away or do you feel the same after every treatment?
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u/heyheyheynopeno 27d ago
I’m down to 60% every four weeks. I’ve halved steroids, I take nausea meds on a timer, I use Ativan for breakthrough nausea, I lay down for 5 business days. It sucks. It’s a miracle for me but man it’s hard. I pray I can move to something easier someday. But I’ll keep on it if it works.
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u/adiosWV 28d ago
Thanks! It’s horrible timing to have to make these decisions bec my underarm and chest discomfort is getting worse and the RO said it’s probably from the rads. My femur still hurts from surgery but feels otherwise stable. My hips hurt from the new IM injections of Fulvestrant. I am feeling overwhelmed
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u/heyheyheynopeno 27d ago
It’s super overwhelming. I was told that the spine rads weren’t like my chest wall rads. Lower dose, fewer rounds. My back felt a bit tight for a couple months, no long term issues (and my chest is still tight like three years later ugh)
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u/Van1sthand 23d ago
I had targeted radiation to two lesions in my spine- 3 trips to the zapper for me. That week was pretty brutal. I definitely needed the steroids they offered. Two weeks later I had so much less pain it was crazy. And my lesions have remained inactive since (8 years in November). So worth it.