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I'm 60 years dianosed with gleason 9 in March. I'm on harmones and just started my 44 rounds of radiation on Monday. The CT and bones scans do not indicate any spread but I have pains in my upper thighs and my arms are very weak. Doctors don't know what the pain is and tell me to go back to my G.P. I'm afraid the cancer has spread to the bones. Any suggestions?
Bert,
If they can't see cancer in your bones then there wouldn't be enough to cause the pain.
Your arms are probably weak from the hormone treatment so you should be trying to exercise; easier said then done though.
I don't know where all the other pains come from but you are not alone. Maybe it's just from getting old. On a scale of 1 to 10 how severe is the pain?
Hi Frank, thanks for the reply. My pain in thighs is about a 2. Sort of like the day after a good hard work out. Arms are weak, meaning I can't hold them up for a long period of time. When I work at my desk my arms have to be resting on somthing to function. Doctors say if it's not on the scan there should not be pain. Actually the pain started before any hormones, (lurpron, caddox) was started. If it's not spread, I'm good with that. But, what he hell is it? I'm really concerned. Also,my PSA was 5.4. from 3.6 18 months ago. Stage is T1C. Every Doc that did a DRE said it felt normal. Thanks, I'm really worried. Love this site.
Bert,
Your PSA doubling time before treatment was greater than 2 years and the PSA was quite low. Your PSA today is probably less than 1.0. Prostate cancer can't be causing your problems.
It sounds as if you do exercise at a high level. Maybe your body can't take that strenuous level of exercise anymore. Whereas a half-marathon was a nice morning run before, now I find just 5 years later that I feel challenged (and aches and pains) by a 5 k run.
Hello, and thanks again Frank. So I must be worried for no reason. I can live with that... hopefully. A friend of Brother's thought it might be a on set of arthritis. But, that also should have shown up as a "hot spot" on the scans. As for a excerise is concerned my wife and I do walk everyday and I now do light free weight work out a few days a week to offset the muscle atrophy that I understand will be coming. Thanks so much for the reply.
Many of us, certainly including me, started paying a good deal more attention to our bodies after diagnosis. On the lookout for signs of disease progression, we tend to interpret all the aches, pains and failures associated with aging or caused by foolish sports or activities as the initial signs of disease progression.
Soon after I was diagnosed I have lower back pain, which concerned me as I had just learned that the disease often spreads to the pelvic girdle as a preliminary step to running rampant through the rest of the body. It didn't take me long to realize that this was the same old back problem I'd had for 25 years or more - and some time later I also learned that with my diagnosis, progression, if it occurred, was likely to be measured in years or even decades rather than months.
I agree with Frank's views, with one small caveat. There are no rules in the PCa game and so if you're listening carefully to your body, it is worth checking on anything that seems unusual, without worrying to much! Easier said and done of course, but I've found over my 15 year journey that it does get better over time.