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I found this on the internet:
What are the symptoms of bone metasis? Am I at risk of breaking bones?
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/understandingyo...
@A MyBCTeam Member - I thought you were getting tested for that? You are making yourself crazy reading things online. Find out if you have bone mets before you drive yourself nuts. I have bone mets and yes, you can fracture a bone but they give you something like Xgeva to help prevent that and you take extra calcium. Please talk to your oncologist and find out for sure if you have it.
@A MyBCTeam Member, good morning Hon. I've read everything also. @A MyBCTeam Member, is right, if we have them we'll take meds, and possibly radiation for pain. I've been trying not to stress over it. We've both been told they THINK we have them. We'll know soon, and we will deal with it, as our sister's have. @A MyBCTeam Member, I'm so very happy your numbers are great. It's wonderful to have good news on here. My bone density was good but a bone scan came back abnormal. We are STRONG and we can do this. Love to all.
@A MyBCTeam Member -a regular CT can be done wit IV contrast, no contrast, or an ingested contrast. It depends on what they are looking at. A Pet /CT you will be injected with a radioactive tracer. Here are some good definitions and what docs look at each scan for.
Intravenous contrast is used in CT to help highlight blood vessels and to enhance the tissue structure of various organs such as the brain, spine, liver and kidneys. "Intravenous" means that the contrast is injected into a vein using a small needle. Some imaging exams of the abdomen and gastrointestinal system use both the intravenous iodine and orally administered barium contrast for maximum sensitivity.
Oral contrast is often used to enhance CT images of the abdomen and pelvis. There are two different types of substances used for oral CT contrast. The first, barium sulfate, is the most common oral contrast agent used in CT. The second type of contrast agent is sometimes used as a substitute for barium and is called Gastrografin.
Positron emission tomography (PET) uses small amounts of radioactive materials called radiotracers, a special camera and a computer to help evaluate your organ and tissue functions. By identifying body changes at the cellular level, PET may detect the early onset of disease before it is evident on other imaging tests.
PET/CT scans to diagnose illnesses, evaluate a patient’s response to treatment, and check for the recurrence of several medical conditions, including cancer.
When you have a PET/CT scan, radiolabeled glucose, a form of glucose labeled with radioactive material, is injected intravenously. Much like a car uses gas to run, the cells of the body need glucose to work effectively. The radiolabeled glucose resembles glucose enough to be taken up by cells, but not enough to be used by them. As a result, cells that need more “gas” accumulate more of the radiolabeled glucose.
The PET/CT scanner detects where there is a concentration of radiolabeled glucose in the body, and thus where disease may be.
@A MyBCTeam Member - That would correlate with what I found on oncolink.org that the CT is 3D. I think I said it backwards earlier.
I have bone mets some with pain some without. I was told I already had many micro fractures once my radiology oncologist saw the MRI. I have finished 20 rounds radiation 10 on shoulder 10 on hip. Those were the larger mets and painful ones. I still have a few in my vertebrea with no pain. Now here is the crazy part. Because the pain came on gradually and had no correlation with any recent accident or injury, my oncologist did a bone scan after seeing a lesion on my shoulder on a ct that as ordered on my chest to beside that the chemo worked. He then ordered a bone scan. The bone scan picked up shoulder and vertebrae mets however, did not pick it up in the hip. I was provided MRI exam on the neck and upper back with the shoulder and one lower back and hip this found as well as confirmed mets. It's difficult to tell with bone mets. The reporting radiologist suggested that because the hip met was not seen on bone scan that a pet/ct be done. There are all these test to jump through though it sounds that eventually the test to have is the pet/ct. As with anything talk to your oncologist if you begin to have unexplainable pain with no correlation to an accident or injury. Than they can decide how to assess the cause of your pain. As always ask questions to yor docs, they are the best first resource as you are your first defense.
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