Pain in the . . . . hips.

For the last two months or so, I have had some intermittent pain in one or both hips.  When I described it to a few folks, they suggested it might be sciatica.  My oncologist did not think it was related to cancer because the pain would not be intermittent but rather steady if it were cancer.  The pain was fairly well controlled by Tylenol and or Advil, so I did not worry about it.  Until Monday.  We had a rather intensive week in Atlanta with the Mission Presidents Seminar and the Area Council Meeting.  Preparing for that and executing those duties that were necessary - trying not to take stuff that might put me to sleep in the middle of the meetings - took its toll.  We got home Sunday night and by Monday nothing would touch the pain. So I called the doctor's office.  The nurse put me in touch with the Acute Care facility at Huntsman, and we went in.
An X-ray was not at all conclusive, so an MRI was scheduled for Wednesday morning.  The folks there said they would call with the results.  We did not hear anything that day, but on Thursday I got a phone call from the Radiation Oncology Dept. with an appointment time of 1:15 next Tuesday with Dr.  Hitchcock.  She is the doctor that presided over both sessions of radiation that I have had. (The first was 36 doses, the last one was 15 doses.  I think I have written something about them in previous entries.)

Can you imagine my shock of being invited to an appointment with a radiation therapy doctor when I had not heard a thing about what the MRI showed?  I asked the nurse to send me the series of e-mails that led to the conclusion that I needed to see Dr. Hitchcock.

The following was included in the e-mail:

Multifocal osseous metastases . . .  with largest lesions in the right anterior superior iliac spine and left ischium. . .  Edema along the right gluteal muscles adjacent to the right iliac wing lesion is more likely reactive. . . 
And it goes one for another sentence or two in similar fashion.

What it means is that it looks like the cancer has spread to my hips.  Hence the pain.  And hence the swelling in my legs.  (I don't think I mentioned this before because we could not tie the edema to the cancer, but the swelling has not be inconsequential.)
We were already scheduled for a CT scan of the lungs next Tuesday, and a visit with the oncologist (Dr. Grossmann) on Wednesday.  So this new appointment with Dr. Hitchcock will likely clarify the situation.  And I will have input from the two doctors at Huntsman that know me best.

I will try to provide an update next week after we know a little more.

Prayers have helped immensely in the past . . . I guess I still need them.