© 2009 Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.When I was first diagnosed I had a pain on the left side of my abdomen by my hip. It was my mentioning of this pain to my gynecologist during my annual physical that prompted a series of tests and the surgery that let to my stage III ovarian cancer diagnosis. I never felt any pain or symptoms when I recurred on my liver and spleen back in 2008.
Even with two different scenarios for a diagnosis it seems when I have a consistent ache or pain I begin to worry about what might be causing it. I admit that if my wrist hurts my mind does not necessarily jump to cancer. But if I have a new ache or pain in my back, abdomen or pelvis the thought of recurrence still pops into my head.
For the past two weeks I have had pain in my lower back on the right side and in my right hip. There were days the pain was at a 7 ( on a scale of 1-10). Ouch! Lucky for me that yesterday I had an appointment to see my PCP for a blood pressure check. We survivors still need to stay on top of all aspects of our health.
After a blood pressure check - it was perfect- I mentioned this back pain to my doctor. He examined me pinpointing exactly where the pain was focused.He told me he thought it was a problem in the sacroiliac joint. Then he looked at me and asked when my last CT scan was. When I told him September he said " In light of you history I would like to check this out. Would you mind going for an x-ray". I said "no problem". Since I have been his patient years I think he read my concern about this pain and also wanted to insure we were treating it the correct way.
Off I went to my favorite radiology group in Metuchen. I waited over an hour since I was a walk-in but eventually I had my lower back x-rayed. The tech said that my doctor would have the results by later in the afternoon.
By the time I got home my doctor had left a phone message which said that there were no signs of cancer but I did have arthritis in the joint . He told me to take anti-inflammatory and pain pills for the next few days and to call him next week with how I feel.
What a relief - dodged another bullet. If I can deal with cancer I can deal with arthritis . The problem is that I always thought of arthritis as something that affected older people and I don't think of myself as old.
Dee
Every Day is a Blessing! Blessed by a wonderful PCP.
1 comment:
Thank you for posting this Dee. I have been having lower pelvic pain for a few weeks now (I'm fine until I start thinking about it, and then it appears... my mind is my enemy!), and this was a nice reminder for me to make an appt with my doctor just to be safe. I won't be seeing her for two weeks, but at least the appt is scheduled. Thank you!
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