Muscle Pain - Chemo side effect?

[IraqiBaller]

Hello again guys!

I've been experiencing strange pains in my leg and arm muscles when moving. After sitting for sometime, standing up causes significant pain, so does moving my arm when reaching for stuff etc.. No pain when idle. I've read somewhere that chemo can cause your muscle density to decrease, and since I'm a pretty big guy (230 pounds) - could that be the cause? It's also worth mentioning that I haven't been moving much for the past 4 months or so.

I'm planning on hitting the gym soon, reckon this is a good call despite the pain?

[scozzie]

I only had 1 x carbo but I to had a lbit of muscular aches, mainly in my legs it started about 2 days in , to begin with it was just a heay feeling with a kind of dull ache but towards the end of the week it felt like I had run a marathon. I told the oncologist at my next appointment and she said it was normal and some patients do have some muscle pains.
So you ain't alone my friend .

Col

[S P]

Hate to say it but this may be just the beginning of neuropathy related issues. In a nutshell, the chemo kills a lot of your nerves especially at the periphery, and it can result in muscle spasms and twitches, shooting nerve pain, and odd hyper-extension pain when you're not even reaching that far. As the nerves are regrowing they can end up sending a lot of false signals, which is where all the issues come from, or something like that. The bigger and taller you are, the worse it is. Hopefully it won't be too bad for you, but it was extremely unpleasant for me and I had to go on some meds for it.

I'm a year+ out from chemo now but am actually having a neuropathy flare up now. Feels like somebody sliced the heck out of one of my toes, but I look at it and there's absolutely nothing there, no cuts or scrapes, and no blisters either. That's neuropathy. I also woke up for some reason last night and was about to fall asleep again at 4am when I got some nasty shooting nerve pain in my right foot (same foot as the toe that's acting up) and after that I gave up on sleeping.

If you don't think it's anything nerve related, then it could just be muscle de-conditioning, especially if you weren't able to be active during chemo. I wasn't either and am a big guy myself (6'3", 260 lbs) So badly de-conditioned muscles plus a not insignificant amount of mass to move around had me feeling like an old man for a couple of months! Plus your blood counts (HGB, RBC, etc) probably haven't fully recovered yet and won't for months, so that's in play also.

Once you start working out it will definitely help! But if it's neuropathy pain there's not much you can do about it other than grit and bear and take some meds for it if needed.

[IraqiBaller]

I'm not sure it's a nerve issue, but I do indeed feel like an old man!

Yesterday and today I also have lower back pain, which is quite concerning since it was similar to the back pain I had when I was first diagnosed with TC. As my signature states, I have a 1.7CM lymph node post chemo. If it had cancer it, can it enlarge enough to cause lower back pain in less than a month?

[Davepet]

If it had cancer it, can it enlarge enough to cause lower back pain in less than a month?

According to your sig, it's only been 12 days since your CT, I've never heard of any cancer going from 1.7CM to large enough to cause pain in 12 days.

Dave