Good morning all,
I finsihed treatment in June 17 and physically had been doing quite well up until recently. I seem to have developed pain in almost all of my joints, its worse when I have been in the same position for any period of time and does ease off with movement but I am not sure if this is cancer/treatment related or if this is part of the menopause? My hip joints are very painful, not able to cross my legs anymore and when I sit on the floor by bum feels bruised.
Does anyone have any experience with this? I have started yoga/pilates and swimming to try and strengthen my body but its still early days so not expecting miracals :-) I have my 3 months PET and MRI scans this week and then meeting with the oncologist in Oct so I will bring it up then but just wondered what other people had done to help allieviate it.
Thanks
Marie
Hi marie
when I look back through my journal of early post treatment your symptoms are the same as I had. I saw a physiotherapist to help teach me how to stretch out my sciatic and piriformis muscle and I kept at them with consistency. You will get there. It does take time.
I had some ups and downs over the last year as your body will have some changes. It seems that with every 2 steps forward you do take 1 back but slowly you are moving in the right direction.
I was good then bad and then good again and then bad again. New symptoms new pains but you eventually get acquainted again with your body.
Now a year out I'm doing good. It took some changes with my prescription for peripheral neuropathy as that developed about 5-6 mths out of treatment and I had to learn what my bowels can and cannot handle. I worked very hard on strengthen my core muscles and getting my muscles tones to keep my hips stabilized. But here I am and I'm doing well! I thought I was gonna need Advil or pills forever to not feel old and disabled but now I barely take anything other then my prescription.
Work with your GP. Have post treatment appointments with your GP to go through issues. I found the oncology team really wasn't helpful when it came to post treatment issues. They are great for follow ups on scans and making sure nothing is coming back but they were not so good with the issues related to treatment. They seem to be the specialist in getting rid of the cancer but leave you hanging with the issues related. They would say oh this or that is normal but wouldn't help with what to do about it.
If your GP doesn't know how to deal with these issues ask them for a referral to a dr who specializes in post treatment.
Good luck
Hi Lolli
Thanks for your reply, I'm beginning to understand what you mean about 2 steps forward and 1 step back! I know its a process and I am just at the start of the healing process so quite some way to go yet. I suppose you just hope that once you have got through the treatment everything will go back to 'normal'.
I will try and get in to see my GP and see if they are any use however I dont have much faith in them as they spent the last 6 months before I was diagnosed telling me that I was fine and it was nothing serious it was only because I kept going back and complaining that I finally got a diagnosis.
Im glad that things are going well for you and that you seem to have turned a corner pain wise :-)
Marie xx
